Fiery Sapphire
by Flameboo
Summary: A disgruntled girl named Ellen is pulled into a huge conflict between Team Rocket and the mysterious opposing team, leading her into a massive adventure complete with hairy disco men, poisonings, and perhaps a chance to glue back together her life. THIS IS BEING REWRITTEN. AS SUCH, THIS VERSION IS PRETTY BAD.
1. Another Home

Hey, everyone! Thanks for checking out my stories. This is a very old story I wrote and I urge you all to check out the rewrite, **Lost Children.** Thanks again for reading and reviewing!

**Chapter 1**

**Another Home**

WELCOME TO PALLET TOWN!

POPULATION: 50

"You've got to be kidding me." Ellen Adler sunk lower in her car seat as the Pallet Town welcome sign passed by. The girl sighed heavily.

The beaten car rolled into the Pallet Town suburbs, blurring past sidewalks lined by neatly clipped trees and an infinite number of two-story, brick houses. The lawns were brown and shriveled by the August heat and large drought notices were tacked onto electrical posts.

Ellen rolled down the car window and the rush of 90-degree heat hit her like a wall despite the shoddy car air conditioning. Beads of sweat stuck to her pale forehead; there was a dry, uncomfortable taste in her mouth; strands of brown hair were damp. The heat felt oppressive here, if it was Fuchsia City it wouldn't matter. A feeling of emptiness spread in Ellen's stomach. Fuchsia City was no longer her hometown. The beaches, the wide span of the Safari Zone hosting a multitude of Pokémon, and the small garden in the back of her house made her yearn to go back. Pallet Town seemed to be a shell of the former city she had grown up in – a simple, fake, reincarnation.

Apparently for a few months after she had been born they lived in Saffron City, a small apartment near the Silph Corporation, but her real childhood home remained Vermillion City. It was the perfect, conventional home, she, Fredia, her father and his Pokemon. There was a little playground out back, the baby pool, the fruit bowl on the kitchen table. The only idyllic slice of life before moving to Fuchsia. And now Pallet Town.

As she sulked, Ellen watched her mother drive. Her gray eyes were focused ahead and her pale, manicured hands clutched the steering wheel. Her dark brown hair was swept back, revealing a soft face. She briefly looked back at Ellen and smiled. "This is going to be better than you think, I promise."

"Good one, Fredia," Ellen deadpanned, catching her look with her matching gray eyes. "I think I have about a zero chance of making friends here."

Fredia sighed. "I know you're angry, but trust me, I would've stayed if I could. Jobs are hard to come by right now."

"It's the third time, Mom." Ellen sat up in her seat, staring at the back of her mother's head. "I'm sick of moving. I want to go back to Fuchsia. Can't we live in a motel or something?"

"Ellen, you don't even remember us moving from Saffron, you were a baby, and lots of people move twice even before your age." She paused and then sighed again. "Kanto isn't doing so well, and you know that. Team Rocket is everywhere, and in case…in case anything happens to Kanto for the worse, Pallet Town is the safest place anyone could be."

"It's also the most boring place. Let's see what I have to look forward to just after my super sweet 16: more homeschooling, no friends, and medication that I hate. Wow, awesome."

"Well, Pallet Town is close to lots of good colleges. Maybe you can start looking at them. Your father got scholarships for all of his computer science work."

"Mom, there is no way I'm getting any money. I have the worst grades ever, and I hate homeschooling."

"Do you think I like this?" Fredia shot back. "I don't enjoy moving, I don't enjoy paying for your medication, I don't enjoy homeschooling, and I don't enjoy being alone for all of this."

Ellen sat back in her seat, eyes widened, her temper cooled and replaced with hurt. She looked out the window again to see rows of identical small brick houses and knew they were getting close to the new house.

The car turned and gravel popped under the tires as it pulled into the driveway of one of the identical small brick houses. Fredia put the car in park and placed her hands in her lap, looking down. "Ellen, I'm sorry, I—"

The girl exited the car and slammed the door shut behind her, looking up at her new home. From what far away looked moderately nice was now revealed to be decaying in some spots. As she looked to the roof for damage, she caught something in the corner of her eye and turned to look at the upper window of her neighbor's house. There in the open window was a set of binoculars clutched by two pudgy hands, directed at her. Once she met the watcher's vision they slipped from the window, slamming the window shut.

Incensed, she walked to the neighbor's front door and pounded on it until a middle-aged man in a lab coat opened the door. He was a pudgy, jovial man with brown hair and a huge smile. "Hello there! You must be Ellen!"

She started. "Um…yes?"

He laughed. "Don't worry, I talked to your mom on the phone before you guys got here! I'm Professor Birch. Welcome to Pallet Town, it's great to meet you! Would you like to meet my son Brendan? He's upstairs in his room."

The pudgy hands and binoculars. "Sure," Ellen said, smiling sweetly. Birch showed her in. She made her way up the steps and stopped at a door with a crudely made STAY OUT sign taped to it. She knocked on the door.

"DAD, GO AWAY, I'M WRITING!" a shrill voice answered.

She opened the door anyway, stepping into the sparse room. The seated figure next to the window spun around angrily, revealing a pudgy cherub face. On seeing it wasn't his father, the young man gaped in shock. "I- I gave you no option to enter my room! Get out!"

Ellen walked further into the room, noticing stacks of notebooks on almost every flat surface. "You spied on me," she said, looking at him pointedly. She walked up to face him in his chair.

He had a cherub face and a snub piggish noise, slight brown eyes and a shock of snow-white hair. He bit his lip nervously, avoiding her gaze, before shrugging. "I'm _so_ sorry, it's just in my nature. I'm a writer, I can't help myself. I just have to people watch." He had a light, slightly lisping voice that seemed odd coming from a fat teenage male. "I'm Brendan Birch. You're Ellen Adler. Aged 16. Coming from Fuchsia City."

She frowned at him. "How do you know so much about me?"

"I eavesdrop on my father, that's why." He paused, then looking at her slyly. "Of course, yours ditched you and your mother, so what do you know?"

She gaped at him and her expression turned dark. "How do you know about that?"

"What did I just say? Eavesdropping." He cast her an offhand wave. "You bore me. I need to go back to writing."

He turned back to his work, ignoring her. She took a few steps back, seeing that her fear of having no friends was slowly coming to reality, before quietly closing the door behind her and walking downstairs. What would've normally been intense anger was subdued by medication and replaced with dull sadness.

She passed by the kitchen on her way out, and Professor Birch burst through the doorway, all smiles. "Ellen! Wait!" She turned to him and he frowned. "Are you all right?"

"Tired. It was a long car ride."

He grinned again. "Well, I hope you're not too tired! I have a terrific surprise. Would you like your very own Pokémon?"

"I—"

He bustled past her, heading for the front door. "I was out doing some fieldwork before and I left the Pokémon down on Route 1. I've got to get back, but call Brendan and you two can walk there together." He smiled again and waved before shuffling away. "Tootaloo!"

"Too…taloo," she mumbled, looking back to the stairs. She imagined Brendan in his room, writing angrily, before turning back to the front door and leaving without the boy.

She crunched down the gravel driveway and eyed her house; the moving van was parked in the road and her mother was nowhere to be found. As she passed the front door the morning paper sat on the walkway; she picked it up and glanced at it briefly.

TEAM ROCKET CONTINUES TO HOLD SILPH CORPORATION HOSTAGES

Saffron City seemed so far away, and it hurt her a bit to know that bad things were happening in her first home. It had been like this for years, but it didn't matter. She spied a trashcan on the sidewalk and dumped the newspaper in, making sure Fredia wasn't looking. A woman as neurotic as her mother didn't need more bad news.

"_YOU_!"

Ellen whipped around to see Brendan Birch storming from his front door, pointing an accusing finger at her. He marched up to her, his impressively short form and her tall form causing his head to only reach her neck. "_You_!" he screeched again. "I just received a call from my father stating that _you_ were supposed to tell _me_ to meet _him_ at Route 1 for a Pokémon!"

"I must have forgot," she said, deadpan.

His pale brow furrowed at her. "You really are a simpleton."

"And you're an asshole. I don't like you." She turned away and began her walk down the sidewalk.

There was silence for a moment before Brendan huffed behind her, struggling to catch up with her long strides. "Perhaps that was a bit harsh for someone like you," he admitted.

She frowned, staring ahead. "I didn't want to move here. It's just another house for me to live in for a few years. No friends, no high school, no Pokémon, just me and my mom. And you, being an asshole. I don't even know if I'm going to college."

"Why?"

Her failing grades, even with homeschooling. "I don't know. All I want to do is get out of here." She stuffed her hands in her jeans pockets. Through the tall grass in the distance she saw the small figure of Professor Birch, but he was acting strangely, as if avoiding something. She squinted. "Is your dad okay?"

Brendan squinted too and they jogged forward, seeing that Birch was cowering on the lower branches of a tree. They looked and each other and burst into a run, stopping at the edge of the tall grass.

"Dad?" Brendan called, peering through the grass.

Birch caught sight of them from the tree, grinning despite the situation. "Brendan, Ellen, I'm so glad you're here! Please, a Poochyenna chased me up this tree, my bag is near you in the grass. Pull out a Pokeball, help me!"

"In the grass…?" Brendan muttered uncertainly, inching back. "I…well, dear me—"

Ellen looked at him and then to Birch before sighing angrily and trudging into the tall grass, staying low to the ground in search of the bag. Pokémon muttered around her and she caught sight of Ratatata in the distance before her eyes focused on a brown leather bag. She tore it open and dug through it, pulling out a Pokeball and awkwardly tossing it on the ground.

A flash of light burst from the capsule, swirling and shifting into the form of a small orange lizard. He blinked at Ellen sleepily.

"Hi," Ellen said quickly, dropping to her knees to talk to him. "I'm Ellen. I need your help. A man is being attacked by a Pokémon. We got to help him."

He cocked his head at her slowly, making little growls. "Humans just get into everything, don't they?"

The growls were sharp in her ears and while her medicine made it hard to understand them, her damaged brain worked. She glared at him. "_Hey_. He's just a professor."

The Charmander gaped at her. "You…you…"

"I'm one of the six percent of the population affected with PSD," she crooned in a commercial voice, before glaring again. "Come on, we need to help the professor. We'll talk later."

They wove through the grass before a small white figure suddenly shot at them. They barreled away from one another, jerking around to see a snow white Poochena growling at them.

"This shit is _my_ turf," the little wolf growled.

The Charmander frowned at him. "This man is clearly bumbling around. Leave him alone."

"We're leaving soon, anyway," Ellen added. "We swear."

The Poochena looked at them, steely-eyed, before turning away. "I want you gone in five minutes. Or _ELSE_!" He disappeared into the grass.

Birch gingerly hopped down from the tree and the three walked from the grass and began back to Brendan's home. The Charmander waddled beside Ellen.

"That was certainly courageous of you," Birch said, grinning at Ellen. "And I'm so glad you've found a Pokémon. Keep him, he's yours!"

The Charmander gaped, but only when Brendan and Birch left Ellen on the sidewalk next to her home did he whip around to her, staring at her angrily. "I belong to no one!"

"Relax," she muttered. "I'm not a trainer or anything. I'm just the local loser. You can leave if you want. I don't care."

He saw the tiredness of her face and shrugged. "Well, I mean, I _could_ stay around for awhile. I just don't like Pokeballs, that's all. I _have_ been alone for quite awhile." He put out his claw. "I'm Charles Thomas Raphael the III. But call me Charles."

She shook his claw. "Ellen."

"So you have Pokémon Speech Disorder?"

She squinted at him. "How do you know so much?"

"Living with a professor gives me plenty of time to learn." He tapped his orange head with a claw. "And I have a good brain, I like to think."

"ELLEN!" Ellen and Charles turned to the screech to see Fredia hurrying out the front door. "I had no idea where you were!"

"Sorry, mom, I got caught up in some Birch family adventures." Her face brightened. "And I met Charles, look!" She pointed at the Charmander.

Fredia looked at her, and then to Charles, and then back to her. "That's nice, honey, but we need to talk about what Brendan and you discussed. He called me."

She frowned. "What?"

"Your and Brendan's plan. To travel together."

She continued staring blankly before realizing that Brendan must have concocted some kind of plan. She almost gaped when she realized that this could be her ticket out. Her face lit in a genuine grin. "Oh, right! Yeah, doesn't it sound great?"

"You know how I feel about Kanto right now."

"But I have Charles! He's super strong!"

"We'll talk inside," she sighed, starting into the house. Ellen followed her closely behind. Fredia began to clean nervously, shelving books, wiping the coffee table. Her daughter watched her from the doorframe. "Ellen, it's so dangerous right now, there's just too much. People are being killed, trainers are being looted and killed, _cities_ are being taken over…I just don't really think it's such a good idea."

"Mom, I'd rather be looted and murdered than stay in this town one more second. I am so freaking bored and considering I don't have a future right now, I might as well run around Kanto for a few weeks."

"_Ellen_!" Fredia said sharply, looking at her in horror.

"_Mom_! Please. This is something I really, really want to do. I'll be fine. God. I'll be with Brendan. He's smart as anything and older than me. And I have Charles."

Fredia composed herself, holding her elbows. "Ellen. I'm sorry. It's just not the best time to go on any kind of Pokémon journey."

"Mom, please." She wrung her hands, looking at her in desperation. "For the past sixteen years I've been sitting around. I've been taking drugs for the past twelve years that make me feel numb inside. I don't even know if I'm going to college. _Please_ just let me run around the region for a few weeks to feel something."

She paused in her cleaning, sitting down in an armchair. She seemed to be on the brink of tears. "I…" She looked down, as if thinking, before sighing and looking up again. "Just call me everyday, all right? And video chat, you can do that at Pokémon Centers. And don't stray too far, stay away from Saffron and Celadon and really any major city. And stay by Brendan's side. And always have your Pokémon with you. And don't talk to strangers. And watch out for Team—"

"Team Rocket. I know, I know. They wear black and stick out like sore thumbs." Her expression softened and her hands fell to her sides. "I promise I'll be fine, Mom. This'll help me, you know, get some energy out or something."

"I suppose," she sighed.

Ellen looked outside. The sun was creeping lower over the horizon. "I think I have to pack and then leave, Mom, Brendan is probably waiting for me."

"Call me as soon as you get to the Viridian Pokémon Center, okay? Clear?"

"Clear." She saw her mother's distraught face. "I'll be back before you know it, I swear."

"Okay."

The girl ran upstairs to quickly pack a backpack before running back downstairs again to see Fredia still in her chair. Ellen hugged her mother before slipping out the front door, Charles waddling by her side. The door clicked behind her and she breathed in the late summer air. She looked to her right and saw Brendan's paunch figure standing in the distance.

"Freedom," she said. They set off down the sidewalk. Charles attempted to keep up with her strides. She looked down at him. "I know I never asked you about traveling, so you don't have to go if you don't want. I just wanted my mom to think I had a Pokémon."

He gaped at her. "What? Of course I want to go! I've been stuck in a Pokeball all my life!"

She smiled at him as they reached Brendan, the young man watching them impatiently. He had a Pokeball clipped to his belt and a pink satchel on his shoulder.

"Nice murse," Ellen said. "Thanks for helping me escape."

Brendan frowned at her, sighing dramatically. "It was hard work, but it was worth it. You _did _save my father, so it was the least I can do. Consider me taking you under my wing a _privilege_." He whipped around to face the path of tall grass, inhaling deeply. "All right, simpletons." Brendan shifted his satchel and set off into the tall grass. "Let's commence."

Ellen and Charles looked at each other before following him into the wilderness of Kanto.

* * *

_I'm in the process of revising chapters- be warned, there is crappiness ahead of ye until this post disappears!_


	2. Abandonment

**Chapter 2**

**Abandonment**

Viridian City was lit up by an intense burst of light and the huge, booming noise of thunder. Rain poured down from the Kanto skies. Pidgey perched on damp branches far above the ground, ruffling their feathers and muttering something about how stupid rain was. Ellen, Charles and Brendan sat among other disgruntled trainers, the three of them sitting side-by-side and staring out the window at the low lights of the small city. Brendan sat slightly away from the two, scribbling intensely in a small notebook.

Ellen squinted out at Viridian, noticing a building very low to the ground with the word GYM lit up above it. "Hey, Brendan?"

"…what?" he muttered.

"Is that the first gym?"

He looked up from his book with a face of complete annoyance. "_No_. It's the final Gym. It's entirely underground. Ground-type. The first Gym is in Pewter. Now _shh_, I'm writing." He went back to scribbling.

Ellen and Charles exchanged looks, shrugging at one another. "I don't care about battling that much," she said.

"As a pacifist," Charles said, gesturing to myself. "I try to forgo conflict. Although I wouldn't mind trying out one Gym. Life experience, good stuff like that."

"Sure! We'll take on Pewter." Ellen held out her fist and Charles bumped it with his claw, when she suddenly realized she had not called her mother. She quickly took out her cellphone, punching in the numbers quickly.

There were a few dial tones before Fredia picked up, her voice already concerned. "I hope you didn't get caught in that storm!"

"Nope, mom, I'm fine, just fine, we got into the Pokemon Center. What's up?" Brendan winced at her voice.

"Well, I went to the store after you left. Cleaned up some more. It's a little lonely here," she said sadly.

"I'll be back before you know it," Ellen said gently.

"Just be careful. The storm looks bad and I heard that Team Rocket might be in Celadon."

"I'll be fine. I'm here with Brendan." Brendan cast her a slight side-glance. The mother and daughter talked for a few more minutes before hanging up.

She looked out of the window once again, staring at the last gym. She briefly wondered if she would ever get there. Seeing Charles yawn she began setting out her sleeping bag. She looked at Brendan. "You going to bed sometime? It's like midnight."

He gave her a quick look. "I'm a night owl. I'll sleep sometime. Don't concern yourself."

"Okay." Despite all of the trainers and Pokemon in the center, despite Brendan and Charles, there was still a vague sense of loneliness in her heart. It was so foreign to be out in Kanto, alone. She curled up in the sleeping bag, Charles at her side, and slept.

Ellen blearily opened her eyes to see Charles staring into her face. She frowned, quickly sitting up. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Brendan's gone."

She rubbed her eyes, looking around. His sleeping bag, gone. Man purse, gone. The bright morning sun shot in her eyes. "_What_?"

He held a piece of paper out to her. "He left us a note."

She took it gingerly; it was a formal note written in script on scented card paper. She sniffed it. Peony.

_Dearest __Ellen__(and __Pokémon),_

_ It is with regret that I inform you of my departure. I deliberated on it last night and decided that it was for our mutual best that we take our separate paths. You have expressed that you dislike me, and I view you as something akin to a large weight that holds me back from my greatest potential. I hope that your hard feelings are contained within your heart, as I know your medicine helps with that. Thank you for saving my father, he appreciates it. I am apathetic._

_ Love,_

_ Brendan_

_ P.S- If you need anything, please call +8675309_

She threw down the letter and punched the numbers into her phone, waiting through the dial tone. "_We__'__re__sorry,__the__number__you__called__does__not__exist_—"

She jammed her phone shut. "That little asshole. I mean, he's right, I didn't like him, but he didn't have to desert us."

Charles frowned, concerned. "We should go back home, I guess."

Her eyes widened. "Oh my God, I can't do that. This is the only chance I'll get."

"I don't feel safe out here."

"I'll take you back to Pallet Town. I'll just go out on my own."

"I don't really want to go back to the lab, either…" He sighed. "I see your point."

There were both silent, staring out the window and looking out onto the bright morning of Viridian City. Despite the sun and the beginning of the day it still seemed so uncertain.

Ellen's eyes scanned the scenery and she spotted a sign to Viridian Forest and then to Pewter City. She stood up, beginning to pack up her bags. Charles looked at her skeptically. "Come on, let's go to Pewter City. We don't need Brendan. We're fine without him. He'd slow us down, anyway."

"I'm trusting you…" the little lizard jumped down from his seat.

"Don't worry, it's day time." She held the door for him as they walked out into the bright sun of Viridian City. She attempted to cheer herself and Charles. "This'll be great! Off to Viridian Forest!

"This is horrible," Charles said.

The Charmander paused to sit down on a rotting log, maneuvering carefully so his burning tale didn't catch any foliage on fire. Ellen sat next to him, squinting at a map. "I think I know where to go."

Charles peeked at the map, frowning. "Ellen, the map is upside down."

Her eyes widened and she realized her folly, tossing the map on the ground and putting her head in her hands. "Well, I'm a failure. This whole journey thing is a joke. I managed to get us lost two minutes after we got into the forest."

Charles saw her helplessness and gingerly patted her on the knee. "Don't say that. We…we just shouldn't have gone off the path, that's all. It's fine. I'm sure we can find our way back." He picked the map up off of the ground, looking at it. "Let's see…"

"We'll just go back home," Ellen sighed. "I'll just finish failing my sophomore year of _homeschooling_ and then go live in a cardboard box."

"Ellen, I'm sure you wouldn't live in a cardboard box."

"I have no other plans for the future, so basically that's the best option I have. God, I messed up."

"Found it!" Charles smacked the map with his claw and stood up. "We're fine. We just go to the left! Come on!"

Ellen followed him through the mess of trees, still skeptical, before her eyes widened with delight when she saw the familiar dirt path of the road to Pewter City. "Dude, you got it! We're back!"

"See?" He handed the map back to her, smiling. "Everything is not for nil."

"What?"

"We're fine."

She sighed with relief. "Thanks, Charles. For a second I thought that I'd really messed up."

"Don't worry about it. We're a team. We help each other out."

They continued down the path to the outreaches of the forest, houses of the Pewter City suburbs beginning to appear along with other trainers. As they walked farther into Pewter they saw that the tower was larger than Viridian, but held a quaint quality with slate roofs and small townhouses. They passed by shops and the huge Pewter museum, supported on massive columns and boasting new exhibits with a huge banner.

Ellen gaped at the museum and then looked around, a smile crossing her face. "Back in the city."

"Feels good?"

"Definitely. I can't believe we did it. We got out."

"And the next stop…" Charles wheeled around, spotting the gym in the distance. "The first Gym."

They walked up to the front of the building, a large, concrete, sparse piece of architecture with a massive GYM sign on the front. A smaller sign at the front of the building described the leader and type.

"Rock type," Charles muttered, squinting at the sign. "Fire doesn't do too well with that."

"Do you still want to battle?"

"Yes! We've got to try this out." He looked up at her pointedly. "But please don't let me faint. We'll forfeit before that happens. Deal?"

"Deal."

The two partners walked into the building to be greeted with dark stone walls and a single path leading through dim yellow light. At the far end of the room was a spiky-haired young man, his eyes lighting up when he saw them enter the building.

"Challengers!" he exclaimed.

Ellen and Charles looked at one another and they started hesitantly forward. "Um, yeah," the girl said hesitantly.

"The Brock is prepared to fight you!" Brock exclaimed, pumping his fist. "Are you prepared to fight the Brock!"

"This is a little weirder than I expected it to be," Charles muttered to Ellen.

"Uh, yes," Ellen said, looking around. "Ellen— I mean, I'm prepared to fight…you."

"Then let's do this! Go, Geodude!" Brock tossed a Pokéball out in front of him, a Geodude appearing from the bright light that emerged from the ball.

Ellen looked down at the Charmander. "Go, Charles?"

Charles waddled out in front of her uncertainly before the Geodude tackled him to the ground, punching him hard in the chest. The lizard squirmed from under the rock creature, back peddling with wide-eyes.

"Charles, forfeit?" Ellen called.

"No! Not yet!" He shot white-hot flames from his mouth, hitting the Geodude square on the forehead. The rock shook it off quickly and fired back with rock smash, which Charles evaded. He then whipped the rock with his tail and the Geodude crashed into the opposite wall. He sunk to the ground, prostrate.

"Darnit!" Brock recalled the fainted Pokémon. "You may have defeated the Brock's Geodude, but you'll never defeat Onix!" A grin spread across his face and he threw out another Pokéball.

A massive rock snake emerged from the Pokeball, sporting a sharp-toothed grin almost identical to his trainer. The thing towered to the ceiling of the Gym, leering down at Charles.

"YOU, LITTLE CHARMANDER! YEAH, YOU!" The Onix pointed his tail at Charles and coiled himself so that he was eye-level with the Charmander. "I WILL CRUSH YOUR BONES TO MAKE MY BREAD! I WILL GIVE YOU A NOOGIE SO LARGE, YOUR SKULL WILL CRUMBLE!"

"Please don't hurt me," Charles whispered in a squeaky voice.

The Onix unleashed a screeching roar and dove its head like a battering ram down at Charles. The Charmander leapt to the side, barely missing the massive crash of the Onix's head and the floor. Charles flattened himself out against a wall as the Onix shakily raised its head from the ground, its form wavering in pain. Suddenly, the Onix dropped to the ground with a shaking thump, unconscious.

"Perhaps the Brock should not have done that," Brock mused. He returned the Onix to his Pokeball, sighing. "Well, you won!"

Ellen's eyes widened. "What?"

"You won!"

Charles gaped from his place against the wall, slowly returning to a normal standing position. "We did it?"

"The badge is yours." Brock handed her a small golden pin in the shape of a rock. "The Brock says congratulations!"

Ellen took the badge, examining it, before Charles grabbed her hand in a claw and lead her out of the Gym. "Let's go, we're done. That was terrifying."

They stepped outside, Charles sighing with relief. "I can believe we did it!" Ellen exclaimed. Charles looked at her skeptically. She realized her mistake. "I mean, I totally knew you could do it!"

"It was ridiculous and horrific! I'm shaking! Never again."

"But you still did it!"

"Sure, sure…well, I suppose I'm a little surprised myself…"

"We're practically champions already." She stretched, looking up at the sky. The sun was dipping lower into the horizon, not quite evening but reaching it soon. "Look, I know we're not battling anymore, but I want to explore more. Cerulean City is the next city, you go through Mount Moon. I bet we can get to Mount Moon before dark."

He fumbled with his claws. "I don't know, what if we end up walking at night? You know what your mother said."

"Don't worry about my mom. Come on!" She suddenly darted ahead of him. "Race ya!"

Before Charles could think better, he rushed after Ellen and the two began their trek to Mount Moon.


	3. It's Getting a Bit Dark

**Chapter 3**

**It's Getting a Bit Dark**

* * *

"It's…getting a bit dark," Charles said nervously.

The sky turned pink with the evening and he looked around the area— a Pokemon Center, and the mouth of the cave, Mt. Moon. They were alone in the little glen, save for the Pokemon Center workers. "Don't worry, you big baby," Ellen said, "I think this place is lit along the pathways were supposed to take. It'll be fine, people do this all the time. You ready?"

"I guess…"

They hesitantly entered Mt. Moon, the entrance of the cave yawning around them and converting the evening light into utter darkness. A path lit with small ground lights stood before them, twisting into the depths of the mountain. They stepped onto the lit path, staying close to one another. Soon after they entered the cave, far off cheeping noises caught in their ears. Charles yelped and clutched Ellen's hand.

"What was that?" he whimpered.

She looked at him, quirking a sparse eyebrow. "Are you afraid of the dark or something?"

"Maybe…"

She squatted down to his level. "It's fine, Charles. I'm pretty sure it was just some Zuba— HOLY SHIT." The cheeping noise suddenly escalated and a wall of Zubats shot at them. The two screamed and Ellen grabbed Charles in her arms, dashing off into the darkness.

The Zubats gave chase. Ellen weaved around huge boulders and stumbled over pocks in the ground, choking on the damp mountain air. Only when she heard the cheeping noises die away did she stumble to a halt, ducking around a natural stone formation to slump to the ground.

"The Zubats…lots of them," she panted. "Not good."

Charles wiggled from her grasp, looking around in terror. "Oh my Mew, now we're lost!" He clutched his head in his claws. "This is horrible!"

Ellen caught her breath. "Charles, please shut up. We're fine. We just find the lit pathway and we're back on track." She stood up and peeked around the wall. Sure enough, there was the lit pathway, now occupied with a few trainers. She smiled in relief, looking pointedly at Charles. "See? It's right there." Charles peeked at the path when the lights suddenly cut and the entire cave was left in complete darkness.

A few trainers screamed or yelped in shock and then there were sounds of struggle. Flashlight beams switched on and swept where the pathway once had been lit, now crowded with men and women clothed in black and wielding flashlights. Ellen's breath caught in her throat. It was Team Rocket, just the way her mother had described— clad in black with a huge red R on their chest, black hats and a black cloth with the bottom of a skull motif covering their mouth and nose. They had their Pokemon out— Ekans, Raticates, Koffings— and surrounded a small group of trainers, grabbing hold of them. One was knocked to the ground with a severe blow to the head, a girl younger than her, and in the sporadic light Ellen could see that the girl's head was cracked open, blood puddled between the lights.

She turned back behind the wall, ducking down. "_Shit, shit, shit, shit_—"

Charles gripped his tail nervously, the light from the tail flame illuminating his worried features. "Is…is that…?"

"It's Team Rocket. They're stealing people's Pokemon. They cut the electricity." She looked around wildly before sinking against the wall, grabbing Charles and holding him close. "Try to cover your tail as much as possible, we've got to get out of here. God, my mom is going to flip if I die."

Both froze when they heard rapidly approaching footsteps and the sound of whimpering. It seemed that a trainer had made a run for it and wandered into their area. The boy doubled over, panting, before looking back and emitting a cry of fear. Two Rockets had followed him, pointing their flashlights directly at his face. They cornered him as he shielded his face and grappled for a Pokeball.

"G-go, S-snowball!" He tossed the Pokeball out and both Ellen and Charles gaped in surprise. The albino Poochyena from Pallet Town emerged from the ball, looking around, growling.

The two Rockets looked at each other knowingly— that was a very rare Pokemon— and nodded. One let out an Ekans to weaken Snowball, while the other went at the trainer himself and pulled out a knife.

Ellen bit at her stubby nails, watching the scene in frozen fear. The glint of the knife off of the flashlight beam made her realize the magnitude of the situation. "W-we need to do something," she whispered suddenly to Charles.

"Are you crazy?"

"That kid is going to get killed!"

"_We're_ going to get killed!"

He looked at her insanely, but by then she had let go of him and picked up a large, jagged rock from the ground. She whispered something to him and he nodded hesitantly.

Rock in one hand and Charles in her other arm, Ellen kept low to the ground and crept towards the two Rockets, too concentrated on their kills to shine their flashlights over the area. One of the Rockets had gotten hold of the boy trainer in a headlock, the knife still in hand. The boy began crying as the Rocket brought it up to his throat. Her heart pounded. She was closing in on the Rocket. _Oh, God_, she thought wildly. _I'm not going to make it, I'm not going to make it, I'm not going to make it—_

She didn't make it. As the knife sliced across the trainer's throat, Ellen silently reared up behind the Rocket and bashed the rock against his skull with all of her strength. She stumbled back as he choked with surprise and then collapsed on the ground, the boy falling with him.

The other Rocket looked in shock at her fallen comrade, but suddenly Snowball dodged the Ekans and bit down firmly on the Rocket's ankle. The Rocket screamed, trying to shake the Pokemon off, and it only took Ellen a second to cross to the other Rocket and bash the side of her head with the rock as well. Ellen dropped the rock, grabbed Snowball in her other arm, dodged the gaping mouth and glistening fangs of the Ekans, and ran blindly into darkness once more.

"Hey, you're those two losers!" Snowball exclaimed, gaping at them, before grinning. "Man, you were sick nasty wicked!"

"_What the hell do you mean wicked_!" Ellen gasped, keeping pace. "_I just might have killed two people, you call that wicked_?"

"I thought it was cool." He shrugged.

Suddenly, a panicked female voice struck up behind her. "_BACKUP, I NEED BACKUP_!"

Ellen's mind raced. It must have been the female Grunt, not quite dead. Now they were after her, but her legs were shaking already and she knew she couldn't run much longer. She squinted through the darkness and blearily made out the outline of a large boulder. She ducked behind it, heart thudding.

"I have no idea what to do," she muttered.

Snowball rolled his eyes. "_Puh-leze_, I can take ten of these jokers in one swoop. Leave it to Feolan." He paused and frowned. "_Not _Snowball, that's _not_ my real name."

Charles and Ellen exchanged annoyed glances.

"_She went this way_."

"_I will fucking kill her when we find her_."

"_Search the area_."

The three froze when they heard approaching voices and footsteps. There seemed to be about five people, most likely Team Rocket members, far in front of the boulder. The three travelers crouched wide-eyed, not daring to even breathe. A thousand thoughts rushed through Ellen's head, but primarily 'Mom was right' was the main one. She hoped Brendan didn't get caught in this, no matter how damn annoying he was.

Suddenly, Ellen's ears blasted with a massive booming sound. A huge, fiery explosion burst from nowhere, silencing the cries of the Rockets with a huge _whomph_ sound. Hot air shot past the boulder they hid behind and almost singed her shoulder. As the explosion died and the smoke drifted, she could hear sounds of pain, coughing, and curses. Suddenly, one screamed with rage:

"_IT'S HIM, THERE HE IS, IT'S MIGUEL, GET HIM_!"

Ellen peeked from behind the boulder to see the conflict. The remaining, uninjured Rockets were pulling out a man from behind another stone wall. As they brought him closer, she could see that he was a thin young man, most likely in his late 20s, with dark blonde hair, tan skin and thin wire glasses. He struggled against them furiously, but one versus three was hopeless.

"I don't think I can try to kill anyone else," Ellen whispered. "I can't take three."

One Rocket kicked him in the nose; blood spurted from it and the man's head lolled back. The Rocket laughed something akin to a giggle. "This is fuckin' priceless, wait until the Boss sees this!"

"Well, whatever," Feolan muttered. "I'm goin'."

Before she could register his comment, Feolan wormed out of her arm and darted towards one of the Rockets. He leapt up and grabbed the Rocket's arm with his teeth, shaking and growling wildly. The man shrieked with pain and looked back, his eyes bulging as he flailed his arm.

Another Rocket went to pry Feolan off, but Ellen dropped Charles and again grabbed the nearest rock and ran up to the Grunt, aiming for her face but striking the Rocket on the shoulder instead. The Rocket turned to her, face bloodied, and with dread Ellen recognized her as the one from before. The Rocket's face turned to shock, but Ellen reacted before her and kicked her in the shin, whipping around to the Rocket holding the man.

"No, _fuck_—" The Rocket raised his arms to protect himself. The man suddenly shot up and punched the Rocket in the face; the criminal staggered back and the man hit him again.

He quickly turned to Ellen. "The other one, get him!"

She looked towards the one Feolan was still hanging on to and went at him, but Charles got there first, leaping up and slashing at the Rocket's chest with his claws.

As Ellen whipped around to find the last Grunt, she felt a short, sharp, stinging pain in her leg; she looked down to see that an Ekans had its jaws firmly clamed on her ankle, it's fangs puncturing through her jeans. _Shit_, she thought. _Ekans is a Poison Pokemon_.

She stepped on the snake with her other foot and tore her leg from its jaws, biting back a shriek of pain. She stumbled back from the brawl to see that Charles and Feolan had taken down their Rocket, while the mysterious man had done the same.

The final Rocket, surveying the situation and shaking wildly, withdrew her Ekans and shakily backed away. She pointed an accusing finger at Ellen. "YOU LITTLE BITCH, YOU'RE GOING ON THE LIST, I SWEAR TO IT, YOU'RE GOING ON THE LIST!" She turned and bolted.

The four stood in the darkness of the cave, wide-eyed, surrounded by dead or heavily injured Rockets. Ellen stood in shock before turning to face the mysterious man. His glasses where cracked and almost useless now, his nose smashed at a crooked angle. Blood coated the bottom half of his face.

"What did she just say?" he asked quickly.

She blinked. "Um, that I was going on 'The List'…?"

He closed his eyes and shook his head, muttering, "Oh no, oh no, oh _no_…" he stopped for a moment, appearing to try to calm himself down by talking to himself. "We need medical attention. Then, we'll talk to the Anti-Trainers. Then, everything will be fine. Just fine…"

"Uh…sir, my ankle is numb," Ellen said, not really comprehending what he was talking about.

He whipped around to her, shaking his head. "Sorry, sorry! Can you still walk?"

"I think so."

"Okay, good. We have to get out of here quickly, there's dozens more Grunts where they came from. The exit is up ahead, the Rockets came from the opposite direction. Come on."

He began walking at a brisk pace, Ellen hobbling behind him as quickly as she could. The Pokémon flanked her. She had no idea what she was getting herself into.


	4. Blacklisted

**Chapter 4**

**Blacklisted**

* * *

_Brendan was bouncing on a giant purple mushroom. He was clad in a beautiful wedding dress. Ellen stared at him from below. "Come join me, Ellen!" he cried joyously._

"_But I'm allergic to mushrooms!" she yelled back, suddenly realizing she was dressed only in a garbage bag. "Wait, what the hell?"_

"_That's okay, Ellen, you're waking up now!"_

_She frowned angrily. "What?"_

_Brendan giggled and bounced away._

"_LOBSTER BISQUE_!" Ellen suddenly sat bolt upright, completely awake. She glanced around, confused by her surroundings for a moment, before looking down at her leg to see her jean leg rolled up to her knee and a bandaged ankle. She turned to see Charles and Feolan sitting in one plastic waiting chair, the other occupied by the mysterious man. She was in a hospital, suddenly remembering the needle. She hated needles.

"You were out for an hour and six minutes, I timed it! The doctor said not to worry. I'm taking care of any hospital bills." the man said in a nasal voice. His nose had a butterfly bandage on it and his glasses were tucked into his shirt pocket. A bruise clouded his left cheek.

Ellen eyed him, frowning. "You waited in here while I was all passed out?"

"I just felt guilty about what happened. I was worried." He frowned, sinking his head. "I'm so sorry you were dragged into that fight. That was terrible." He looked up again. "I'm Miguel, by the way."

"Ellen."

"You saved my life, and I can't thank you enough for that. Most people wouldn't have done that."

"Oh, _she_ gets all the credit," Feolan muttered. "_I'm_ the one who stepped in!"

"However," Miguel said slowly, lacing his fingers together on his lap. "We do have a slight problem now…"

"What is it?"

"Um, the List."

Ellen faintly remembered the Rocket who screamed at her. "And me being on it?"

He nodded gingerly.

She saw this and narrowed her eyes. "And…um, on a scale of 1 to 10, how big of a problem is this?"

"I'd say…" He hunched his shoulders. "An 11."

Ellen pinched the bridge of her nose and looked up at the clock. Close to midnight. God, things were not working out for her. At least she could call her mother in the morning without having to explain any hospital visits. "Okay," she said slowly, sighing. "Can we maybe fix this little problem? And what does The List even mean?"

His expression brightened. "I'm pretty sure we can fix it! I'm almost positive!" He paused, forehead creasing. "But…frankly, The List is Team Rocket's blacklist." He saw Ellen pale. "Don't worry, it has at least three hundred people on it, and you're pretty low on the list, I would assume. They don't even know exactly what you look like."

"So…" Ellen studied Miguel, his beaten stature and injuries, before getting an odd feeling in her stomach. "What number are _you_ on the Hit List?"

He flipped hair away from his forehead with a twitch. "Um, I'm not sure, I've never finished hacking into the system…but, but I'm pretty sure I'll finish really soon, and then I can just delete you off the list!"

"That's all?"

"That's all. However…" He opened the laptop on his lap and began typing on it. "It would make me feel better if you accompanied me…look at this."

Ellen took the laptop from him to see a local news site bombard her with the top headlines: TEAM ROCKET AMBUSHES MT. MOON

'CERULEAN, KANTO- _Late this evening Team Rocket ambushed Mt. Moon with an estimated fifty members. There is no body count as of now, but several trainers and Team Rocket members were killed in the ensuing skirmishes_…'

She scanned down the page, praying that any mention of her not be in the article, but something else caught her eye.

'_Three Team Rocket members were killed in a blast reportedly issued from a Molotov Cocktail. The ambusher was not found, but it has been one of the few times an assumed citizen may have countered a Team Rocket ambush. We are reminded of the vigilante group the Anti-Trainers from years past, now thought to be defunct after alleged numerous loss of life and overpowering by Team Rocket…_.'

"Anti-Trainers…" she paused, attempting to remember the night's past events. "You definitely mentioned them."

"Oh, yeah…" he took the laptop back from her. "Forgot that was in there…" he paused. "Full disclosure, I _am_ associated with that group. That's the reason you got put on The List, because they assumed you were with me."

"Also probably because I took down two other Grunts," she muttered.

"And that was…pretty terrifying. Regardless!" He stood up. "Whenever you're ready, we can leave. The sooner we get you off that list, the better. I'll meet you at the entrance." He picked up his things and left.

Charles, Feolan and Ellen all looked at one another. Feolan wagged his tail. "Does this always happen to you guys? I kind of like it. Puts some spice in life!"

Charles shook his head in thought. "I suppose if this guy is going to help you, we should go with him. I mean, you have us, and he doesn't exactly look like a top-notch criminal."

Ellen sighed and rubbed her eyes. "I guess…what are we getting ourselves into?"

"Whatever it is," Charles said, "let's try to get out of it as soon as possible."

The doctor came back into the room and assured her that her leg would be fine, sending her on her way. The group met Miguel at the entrance of the hospital, a large modern room, and he quickly hung up his phone when he saw them.

Ellen looked at him suspiciously. "So…where to?"

"Don't worry." He recognized her discomfort. "We're just going to the library. It's right across the bridge over there." As they walked outside, he pointed to a faraway bridge, its skeleton faintly illuminated by lights. "Just stick with me, I don't know if the Rockets have left yet…"

She surveyed the area as they walked. Cerulean City was a mainly quiet city and they walked along one of its common streets, a tree-lined, commercial area twinkling with lights. "The police don't seem to be doing much."

"Most of the police force have been double agents for Team Rocket for years…" He sighed. "That's the problem. That's what the Anti-Trainers were for…are for, I guess."

"How long have they been around?"

"Years and years. Way before you were born. They started around the time Team Rocket started."

"Never heard of 'em."

He looked at her oddly. They continued past the busy part of Cerulean to a more residential area. "No offense, but do you live in the middle of nowhere? We've been in the newspapers for years. Anonymously and as a whole, but still."

She shrugged. "I don't read much, and my mom only likes to mention Team Rocket wrecking havoc. Not that it matters, anyway, half of the stuff I read I have a hard time understanding." He looked at her questioningly. She sighed, remembering that her mom didn't like her talking about Pokemon Speech Disorder. "Just…just dyslexia…"

"Ah, I see…" He trailed off into thought and then looking ahead again, stopped suddenly, wide-eyed. "Shit."

"What?" Ellen stopped as well, causing Feolan to crash into her legs. She traced where Miguel was looking to a darkened house. She could make out faint outlines of people in dark uniforms prowling around the yard…Team Rocket. She looked around. No one else besides them and her group. "What do we do?" she whispered to Miguel.

"Uh…move away from the area…" He made a move to do so before freezing again when one of the Team Rocket members pointed at them. Another figure, in a dark color but not in a uniform, turned towards them. "Run!" Miguel grabbed Ellen's arm and took off back into the city. She careened along with him before breaking free and running in stride with him, snatching Feolan and Charles up in her arms.

"In here!" Miguel ducked into a coffee shop and Ellen followed suite. They hunkered down at a table in the far back, the shopkeeper looking tiredly at them in hopes that they would buy something.

"Awesome!" Feolan exclaimed, plopping down on the table. "What the hell do we do now?"

"Do you think they saw us?" Charles asked nervously. Ellen repeated the question to Miguel.

He spoke in a whisper, breathing heavily from the run. "We were still in the light…I don't want to say so, but they might have. One of the Rocket Executives was with the Grunts. There must be something really expensive in that house."

"Should we do something about it?"

"Yes…but I can't afford to do that with you in tow. I don't want you even more exposed to Team Rocket." He looked at his watch nervously. "We have to get you out of the system in time before they start to recognize you."

Ellen's eyes widened. "Then let's get that started, I can't afford that at all."

"But I have to think of a good way to get to the library without getting caught…"

The door to the coffee shop swung open again, but when Ellen turned at the noise she saw a group of four Team Rocket Grunts entering the shop, followed closely by a young dark-haired man. All of them wore the terrifying Rocket trademark, a black bandana tied around the lower half of their faces, obscuring their noses and mouths and emblazed with the lower half of a skull.

"You two— hold him. You two— get them," the dark haired man said sharply to the Grunts. The four split, two going for the shopkeeper, the other two going for Ellen's group.

Both Ellen and Miguel shot up from their chairs, Feolan and Charles jumping to Ellen's side. The two Grunts advanced on them, followed closely by a Machoke and an Arbok. Charles and Feolan exchanged terrified glances— they knew there was no way they could win against the powerful Pokemon.

One of the Grunts came at Ellen, who sent a punch flying at him as he approached. He dodged it and pushed her into the wall, pinning her arms with his hands. She struggled and kicked at him wildly before he knocked back her head at the wall, dizzying her world. She blearily looked to her right to see Miguel in the same position.

Charles turned to Feolan. "You take the Arbok, I'll take the Machoke."

Charles wound back and then jumped at the Machoke, spewing small tongues of fire at him; but the Machoke grabbed him from midair and held him in a choking grasp. Feolan saw Charles and stopped in shock, and the Arbok struck him from the table and wound its coils around his body, trapping him.

"_Guys_!" Ellen cried hoarsely. Her mind whirled with fear, but the throbbing in her head made it impossible to muster up the strength to break free. She managed to make eye contact with the Machoke. "Please, don't hurt him—"

The dark-haired man strolled up behind the Grunts, pointedly flipping his cell phone shut in their line of vision. He pulled his bandana down to his neck. He was about Miguel's age with dark gelled hair and a neat grey suit. He had a sharp, mousy face and green eyes. Sitting on his shoulder was a Pikachu. Both the Pikachu and the man seemed strange to Ellen— the Pikachu looked sick, and the man seemed shorter than he looked, but he was taller than Ellen.

"Just got off the phone with the Boss," he said casually. "Told him about my little find. He wants you alive, Miggy…" he was looking at Miguel, then turned to Ellen. He paused. "You're a new face. Rookie, right?" Before Ellen could react, he held up his phone and shot a picture of her face. Miguel cursed quietly under his breath. "That's a real beaut'. One for the old photo album. Anti-Trainers still dragging themselves along, Miggy? Still crawling along?"

"She isn't involved, Donovan," Miguel said quietly. "Please let her go."

"You know," Donovan said, "I would honestly believe that if I hadn't had reports of a certain brunette female trainer with an albino Poochyena and a Charmander attack a group of Grunts at Mt. Moon."

The two were silent.

"Uh-huh," he said, scratching his Pikachu on its head. The Pokemon emitted a serious of weird gibberish noises before leaping onto the floor. "Well, this has been real fun, but I'm going to have to cut this short. My new friend here, Donovan Jr., is getting pretty hungry, and—"

"What does he eat, hair gel?" Ellen muttered.

Both Miguel and Donovan gaped at her. Surprisingly, Donovan laughed. "You know, I like you. You're funny. Regardless, you're still going to have to die. Donovan Jr. here as been engineered to be a carnivore, so that's pretty much—"

Ellen slammed her head into her Grunt's face, striking him square on the forehead and causing him to stumble back in pain. "Charles, Feolan!" Ellen shouted, going for a chair to use against Donovan.

Before she could do so, Donovan pushed her back against the wall again, and suddenly in his hand appeared a huge kitchen knife, pressed against her throat. She was suddenly reminded of the boy trainer who was murdered at Mt. Moon.

Miguel stared at them, fear crossing his eyes. "Donovan, stop—"

"You try that one more time and get your funny fucking little throat sliced open," he snarled. Out of the corner of her eye Ellen could see Charles pleading with the Machoke. "Just be glad the Boss doesn't want you alive like that poor sap over there, at least you'll go moderately quick—"

There was a white blur through the air and Feolan was on Donovan's head, clawing and biting at him. Simultaneously Ellen pushed Donovan's arm away and went for the other Grunt holding Miguel. The Grunt jerked back in fear; Miguel bashed his head into a wall and the Grunt crumpled to the floor. The Machoke, confused, absently loosened his grip on Charles enough for the Charmander to push away.

"GAH!" Donovan finally managed to rip Feolan off of his head, throwing the wolf to the side. He bounced and then scuttled back to Ellen. Donovan Jr. leapt up onto the table and hissed at Ellen and Miguel, revealing small, sharp fangs. Behind the Pokemon, Donovan and the Grunt hovered menacingly, the table the only thing separating the two groups.

Donovan Jr. and Donovan both lunged at the same time. Ellen jerked away from the curving arch of Donovan's blade before grabbing Miguel's wrist and ducking away from the table, dragging the man with her until he picked up into a run.

"YOU FUCKERS!" Donovan howled after them.

They tore past the two other Grunts and the now dead shopkeeper, Charles and Feolan close at their heels, and shot out the door, taking off down the dark streets of Cerulean City.

The Rockets watched from the coffee shop.

Donovan Jr. growled sadly.

Donovan picked the Pikachu up before sighing heavily. He surveyed the situation. One dead bystander, an unconscious Grunt, and two escaped Anti-Trainers. Just great. Giovanni was going to be overjoyed.

* * *

The group barreled down the city streets, Miguel jerking his wrist away from Ellen so he could lead them through the city. A few moments into running, Charles managed to catch up to Ellen's side.

"Ellen," he managed to pant, "I don't feel so hot…I need to stop running…"

She looked at him maniacally before hauling him into her arms. "Better?"

"No…"

"You better not barf on me!" She continued running until she looked down quickly and saw that Charles was glowing, his body emitting a soft light, and the only other glowing she had ever seen was in that bad vampire movie, so she knew it was a bad thing.

She ducked into an ally and almost threw Charles on the ground, Feolan following them curiously. Charles began to shine brighter and brighter, resulting in Ellen and Feolan both darting behind a trashcan in fear. The light grew insanely bright, then extinguished completely. Ellen and Feolan eyed each other in fear.

"Charles…?" Ellen asked, poking her head out from behind the trashcan. Her eyes widened. "Oh my God!"

Charles had turned into a lizard with bright, crimson red skin and formidable claws— a Charmeleon. He admired his new form, gaping. "Wow, this is amazing! I never thought I'd evolve!"

"My baby is growing up," Feolan sniffed mockingly, then frowning. "That's just great, but we're got bigger things on our hands and paws right now."

On cue, Miguel ducked his head around the ally. "God, Ellen, where were you?" He noticed Charles. "Oh, he evolved. Awesome." He fidgeted nervously. "Look, that's fantastic, but we need to keep moving."

"_You_!" Ellen walked up and narrowed her eyes at him, jabbing him in the chest with an accusing finger. "I want to know what's going on _right NOW._ I almost got _shanked_ by some random criminal, and now they have a picture of me, and I am probably sure as _fucked_—"

"—I know, I know, I know, I'm sorry—"

"—and let me guess, you can't get my photo off now, and now they know who I am and will probably follow me everywhere and—"

"Stop, okay, stop, please." Ellen quieted for a moment. Miguel rubbed the bridge of his nose. He looked extremely tired. "I know, and I'm _very_ sorry. We need to take things as they go now. Right now, I'm going to get you to the safest place I know, and then we'll go from that, okay?"

"How the hell do I know this place is 'safe'?"

"Look, I'm an Anti-Trainer, we are for the common good, you can look up past news paper articles, and why would Team Rocket be after me anyway?" He sighed. "There's not much you can do now, anyway. You're stuck. Besides, from the way you handled that situation, you could mostly likely beat me up right now if you wanted."

Ellen's stomach sunk. He was right in both cases— her hyperactivity from PSD had driven her mother to put her in several athletic classes since she was very young. Kickboxing. Boxing. Track. "Okay, fine. Let's go."

They continued through the city streets, weaving through alleyways and city squares, dipping through the pools of lamplight. Ellen's mind was numb— she knew she should have been thinking quick at that moment, but for what all had happened, she could only follow Miguel like a dumb dog.

They continued onto the outskirts of town and weaved across a long bridge over the river that spanned Cerulean. Miguel was constantly peering around, looking over his shoulder, craning his neck to see ahead. Finally, they made a sharp left turn and stood at a line of thick trees.

"Well," Ellen said, "this looks safe."

Miguel rolled his eyes and ducked into the trees, Ellen following closely behind. They continue for a while through the forest before stopping at a cave wall. Miguel dug his fingers into the wall, bringing away a secret door.

"Dude!" Ellen exclaimed, examining the door. She paused. "Isn't this the Cerulean Cave?"

"Yup." Miguel and Ellen entered the doorway; he closed it behind them. A dim light lit the cave tunnel. "We use part of it as a base."

"Isn't Mewtwo here?"

"Team Rocket has it."

She quieted. "Oh."

They continued a seemingly long time before stopping at a door. Ellen could hear the mumble of various voices behind the thick wood of the door. She stopped several steps away from the door, unsure of what kind of situation she was getting herself into.

Miguel went to open the door but stopped and turned when he noticed that she wasn't moving. "Relax."

"Yeah…not happening right now."

He shrugged, turning his back to her to unlock the door. "There's nothing much I can say anymore. It's get killed by Team Rocket or get help from the Anti-Trainers. There's not much of a choice anymore."

She bit her lip before frowning. "Fine," she said shortly, and the door opened with a click.


	5. Fiery Sapphire

Hi! This is the third chapter. By the way, I know the Anti-Trainer thing is weird, but it's cool and awesome at the same time. I'm kinda known for originality and going where no one has gone before! (Strikes heroic pose and sparkles) On to the chapter! I own everyone, except Team Rocket.(I own Donovan, though. You gotta love that guy.)

* * *

Fiery Sapphire

Chapter 5

Miguel flipped on a light and Ellen was greeted by a shabby looking room. There were old warped wooden floors which creaked and wall paper that peeled. The whole place reeked of decay so much so that Ellen had to cover her nose and mouth with her gloved hand, narrowing her eyes.

"I say we get out of here," Feolan suggested in a muffled voice. The girl looked down to see the Poochena with his snout smothered in his mass of white fur.

Before she could answer him in any sort of way; be it speech or even gesture, the man who had greeted her before stood up briskly and walked across the room, holding out his hand for a handshake. He was a middle-aged man with a mess of dark brown hair, a tanned complexion, and a certain rugged feel about him. His eyes crinkled up when he smiled, a pleasant smile, and Ellen shook his hand.

Ah, yes, his whole forearm was robotic.

It was if someone had sliced off his arm, and replaced it with an exact replica, except with visible metallic joints and bones. The girl was shocked to say the least, but she was still uncertain about her situation so she tried to keep a calm demeanor.

"Uh…hi," she said quietly. "I'm Ellen."

He nodded in acknowledgement and said to Miguel, "So this is the girl you were telling us about? The brand-new Anti-Trainer?"

'_What the crap_?' Ellen thought, but shook her head and resisted from asking any questions. '_Cool, calm, and collected, Ellen. That's the way to go_.'

The young man nodded enthusiastically, and the older man turned to Ellen. "The name's Russell. Nice to meet you, Ellen."

Ellen shifted her feet nervously and nodded. There was silence.

Finally, she looked up at him, gathering up enough courage to ask in a muttered tone: "So…what the hell am I doing here?"

Russell immediately raised his heavy eyebrows at Miguel. "You didn't tell her?"

"Hey, I'm not getting paid for this," he snorted, pushing up his thin-framed glasses and crossing his arms "And besides, when we were walking on the bridge, that asshole Donovan had to rear his ugly head and make a Pikachu try to eat Ellen's brains. So that's why I didn't tell her."

"Tell us what?" Charles asked, well aware no one could understand him.

Russell sighed and made a sort of tired gesture with his robotic hand, turning to Ellen. "Alright. This might come as a bit of a shock to you, but there really are people out there who want to stop Team Rocket. Bold enough, I mean, to stop Team Rocket. Well, that's us. We're the Anti-Trainers." Before the girl could respond, he shook his head at her. "Now, I know what you're thinking. What kind of a name is Anti-Trainers, right?"

She admitted she was.

"That's okay," he said, smiling, but didn't really answer her question. "I'm sorry to say it gets worse. See, it gets _really_ worse. Team Rocket is horrible. Murderous. Scandalous. A disgrace to Kanto! We've been fighting against them for _years_."

"Years," Ellen repeated wistfully. Imagine…people trying to stop Team Rocket. All these years she didn't know about them. And now here they were, standing in front of her.

"And besides, Team Rocket has the blueprints to the Master Ball," Russell added quite suddenly, jerking Ellen out of thought.

She frowned at him and racked her brain for any slight memory of general Kantonian knowledge. "Wait…but I thought Sliph Co. was the only producer of the Master Ball…Team Rocket didn't…didn't…" she shook her head, disbelieving.

Russell smiled sadly, like he pitied her, and then drifted into nostalgia. "Okay, picture this, then. Five years ago. Team Rocket has captured Sliph Co. The President is nowhere to be found, and the Boss is in his place. Team Rocket has captured the Silph Co. workers and forced them to work. Pandemonium everywhere. And then _we_ come." He grinned triumphantly.

"And did you stop 'em?" the girl asked eagerly, eyes wide open.

"Uh…no," he said flatly, looking at Miguel who had his head down. "But that's where _you_ come in. We want you to stop Team Rocket."

Ellen stared at him. And stared. And stared at him in disbelief. Realization finally kicked in. _WHAT_!? This wasn't happening. This was crazy. This could never happen. She tried to picture herself an Anti-Trainer: a pale, lanky, stupid girl sprinting in a fairly menacing room, until…two clicks and a sharp, burning gunshot. She falls to the ground dead, shot by someone she can't recognize. Ellen shivered. Anti-Trainers.

She was dreaming.

No, she was awake and facing a wounded veteran.

She was dead and this was what the afterlife was.

No, she was alive and facing a life changing decision.

_'Make up your mind'_, she thought. '_Say no. No, say yes! You're gonna die if you agree. No, you're life will be pointless if you don't. Make up your freaking mind, you lousy, stupid, fatherless, good-for-nothing, ASSHOLE. FREAK_.'

The words she had called herself reverberated in her brain.

_We're not getting any younger. _

_What about mom? _

_Mom doesn't have to know about it. _

_Are they're any papers I have to sign? _

_Papers my ass. _

_Now get on with it._

She nodded, and nodded in agreement. She continued to nod, saying, 'yeah, I'll do it,' and 'sure, sure!'

_Good job._

And Ellen Alder grinned a huge grin and said for the last time, "YEAH, I'LL DO IT!"

"OH, WONDERFUL!" a black-haired woman bustled past Russell and stood in front of her, displaying her bright red lips in a huge smile. "Bless you, dah-ling, oh wow!" She grabbed her hand and pumped it furiously, her other hand holding an empty wine glass. "I'm Marylyn. As old an Anti-Trainer as Russell is. Wow. Great to meet you. Don't mind me and my drinking, dah-ling, I promise I'm not an alcoholic."

And she proceeded to shake Charles's and Feolan's respective paw and claw, earning weird looks for around. Then she whipped around, smashed into a wall and stumbled back to her seat.

When Marylyn sauntered drunkenly back to her seat, Russell suddenly turned to Ellen and asked, "Wait a second…how _old_ are you?"

"Seventeen," Ellen lied quickly. "No…wait! Eighteen."

The man raised his one of his thick eyebrows at her disbelievingly. For some odd reason, Russell had the uncanny ability to see through most lies. Actually, most people could identify a lie…if they were keen enough. But Russell had gone through a lot of that through the years.

"The oldest I'm going for is sixteen," he said.

"Close enough," she mumbled guiltily, lolling her head around for a bit. "Okay, okay, so maybe I am a little too young for this job…but I think it's better than going around and collecting badges. Can't we… have a contract or anything?"

"Well…there _is_ the Anti-Trainer Pact." Miguel finally spoke, and he shifted his glasses a bit. He smiled. "But what'll we swear it on?"

Russell suddenly conjured up a brilliant idea. "The Rayquaza Paper!" he said triumphantly. He rooted around in a small desk in the corner of the make-shift room and brought back a small folded up piece of paper and handed it to Ellen. "I would make you put your right hand on it, but it's a little small…"

The girl frowned. 'The Rayquaza Paper?' She fumbled with it for a bit before opening the paper up. The paper was a wall of text, lines and lines of complicated words running down the page. She could read only clips of the document, but Ellen conjured up a brief summery of the paper and ultimately, her mission.

Her mind comprehended this, with the occasional 'blah' substituting unknown words:

'_…In order to reach the legendary Sky Pokémon, Rayquaza, one will obtain all eight badges in Kanto. After this blah blah they may enter the blah Pokémon League and blah win…' _

_'…Only a true, blah Pokémon Master may blah entrance to the Rayquaza blah. Otherwise, the tower would be blah to anyone else…' _

_'…Rayquaza will blah any of your commands once it recognizes you as a Pokémon Master…think of the blah! Anything._'

'_…TR…_'

Ellen flinched and stared at the paper. TR? _Team Rocket_?

Yes, at the very bottom of the paper was, in blood-red ink, two large letters stamped down. Both very ornate, both very complex, the T curled around the R a bit with a flourish.

"So…you want me to collect badges even though I'm an Anti-Trainer…just because you have a piece of paper you stole from Team Rocket's HQ?" Ellen asked finally, folding the paper up again. She bit her lower lip. But…she was just being a trainer, then! They wasn't any difference! There wasn't a change in the scheme of things.

Miguel patted her on the back reassuringly. "Oh no, that's not all. Don't worry, you won't regret it."

She didn't regret it, and even as Russell told her the objectives of an Anti-Trainer, and the risks, and all the other things you'd want to hear, Ellen and her Pokémon looked at each other and smiled; Charles puffing out his chest, Feolan sneering, and Ellen standing there raggedly, grinning a snagle-tooth smile.

"…the headquarters is what keeps the Team together," he continued, long into his speech, "not to mention the Boss. Anyway, I'm positive you can't defeat the headquarters by yourself-"

She suddenly stopped him. "The Rayquaza Paper, right?" she asked angrily. "No one told me about _this_! Who says," she repeated.

"Your new Boss does," the man answered, and then cringed. "Wait. Boss sounds bad. How about, 'your new _employer_ does?' Okay, sounds good. But seriously, the Headquarters is much too dangerous for only a new Anti-Trainer to take on."

"But…but I'll get better as I go along…" she mumbled.

"Exactly! That's why you're going to collect the eight badges, too!"

"_NO_!" she cried suddenly, pounding her fist in the air. "I didn't come here to collect badges! If you want to me do that then I'm just leaving…" she pushed her backpack over her shoulder.

Marylyn rolled her eyes. "Oh, for Mew's sake! Russell, enough with the niceties. We're making you collect the freaking badges because if you do, some giant Pokémon named Rayquaza will get it's ass off of this teeny tiny island and obey your every command. Including obliterating Team Rocket. GOT IT? I thought you were smart enough to read it on the paper, but apparently, you're _not_."

"Marylyn," Russell hissed at her, but nodded sheepishly. "That's about what I was going to say, save the stupid part. I know it sounds crazy, but trust me, it'll a major help. So, now…the swearing. On the pact, I mean."

The girl snorted.

But Ellen agreed and gripped the paper in her hand, watching as her new employer collected his thoughts and boomed, "ELLEN!"

"Yeah?"

"Do you agree to become an Anti-Trainer?"

"Yep," she said deeply, almost wanting to salute him.

"Ellen, do you agree never to tell any one else your teammates names?"

"Yup."

"Do you agree to fight Team Rocket no matter what the situation, what the time of day and no matter what the weather?"

"Um…I guess…"

"Do you agree to _never_, no matter what the circumstances, complete to Team Rocket's wishes?"

"Y-yes…?"

"Do you agree to never succumb to death in the presence of Team Rocket?"

Ellen was shaking her head by now. "Russell, um, what's gonna happen to me…?"

"And finally, do you agree to never give in to Team Rocket, even if you have to kneel at the Boss's feet, even if you…" he pondered for a moment, thinking hard, and eyebrows close over his eyes, and he said, "even if you're tortured, shot in the head, and fed to a Rhydon?"

"_NO_!" the girl yelled finally, and everyone glared at Russell. Ellen was actually shaking with fear. All this violence, all this death…

…uh…" The man slowly came to a halt in his speech and looked around guiltily. All the other members were still glaring at him, and he said, "Okay, maybe that rule is a little to graphic for you…let's just skip that one…no, wait, that was the last…okay, you're officially an Anti-Trainer!"

Everyone cheered, and the two oldest Anti-Trainers exclaimed, in their respective tones, "Now make the Anti-Trainers proud!"

"Okay…" Ellen nodded jerkily and backed up a few steps, swallowing. "Wait…so I just go now…?"

"Why wouldn't you?" the Leader of the Anti-Trainers asked quizzically.

"Maybe…maybe you could give me some survival tips or something…"

"Won't need those," Marylyn said quickly.

Before the girl could leave, Miguel pulled her aside. "Sorry 'bout that," he whispered to her. "Russell basically wants you to live his broken dream. Or…_our_ broken dream, at least." When Ellen gave him a questioning look, he continued, "back when we tried to invade Silph Co, there was a boy like you who was out collecting the badges for us. He helped out in Silph Co, but got…" he paused to sigh. "…Captured…by Team Rocket. He's dead."

The girl gasped and was almost to tears. What was she getting herself into? "Holy shit, that's bad! Team Rocket killed him?"

"Technically we don't really know. But we're pretty sure. Don't let my stories scare you though. We just made a mistake. A big mistake." He sighed.

"No kidding," she said shakily.

Miguel looked like he was going to say something else, but suddenly a young woman popped up in front of Ellen and smiled. She swished her long, blond braid. "Hi. Sorry if I'm interrupting anything, but we just remembered that you need a codename. By the way, I'm Samara."

"Codenames?" asked Ellen. Miguel shuffled to the rest of the group.

Samara piped up. "Team Rocket, of course. We can't just go around with our normal names. It's unsafe. So, I'm Silver. Or Leaf. We usually take two nicknames in case they find out one."

Marylyn spoke up. "I'm Crystal. Or Blue, which ever makes you happier, dah-ling."

"Gold." Miguel said curtly, and then frowned. "Or…Yellow," he muttered to himself.

"Red." Russell finished. "That's it. Now. You need to choose a codename. What'll it be?"

Ellen thought for a moment and brightened a bit. At least _this_ part was fun. "What's open?"

"Open?" Russell repeated, rubbing his chin. "Ellen, members don't just leave. All the nicknames are taken. You'll have to make one up yourself."

Marylyn leaned over and whispered something in his ear, but he shook his head abruptly. "No. Definitely not. It's stupid."

"It wouldn't hurt," Crystal said softly.

Red shook his head slowly, but not out of disagreement. He just shook his head with disbelief, as if he was saying, 'I can't believe I'm doing this.' He sighed. "What about…_Fiery_ Sapphire?" he asked her gruffly.

"Fiery Sapphire…" Ellen mused, rolling it around on her tongue. "Fiery Sapphire…Fiery Sapphire…Fiery Sapphire…Sounds a bit cliché."

Red slapped his hand on his forehead. "Give me a break…"

"But I'll take it," she piped, and added mentally to herself, '_And it matches my necklace, too_.'

The truth was that it actually did. As Marylyn would probably say, 'what an _adorable_ touch.' Coincidence about the necklace and codename? She hopped. Ellen didn't want to get into any mess about necklaces _and_ Team Rocket.

"Great, great, great," Red said, rubbing his hands together. "Well, that's about it. Anything you wanna tell us, Fiery Sapphire?" He smiled.

The girl grimaced. "Well, there is _one_ thing…about PSD…"

OoO

After everything was settled and the Anti-Trainers got over the initial shock that their new member could indeed speak to Pokémon, Miguel gave her a cell phone to keep in touch with them and they bade her goodbye.

But before that, Gold had something to tell her.

"It was my brother," he said.

"Huh?"

"My brother was the one who was captured by Team Rocket."

And Gold went back inside the cave, and the rest of the group, unaware that he had left, waved the new Anti-Trainer goodbye.

And Fiery Sapphire waved back to them; hesitant at first, both about the condition of Miguel _and_ her new mission.

Fiery Sapphire would be known by many things in the upcoming months: Ellen, friend, trainer, girl, craphead, ugly, Jennifer, bitch, Anti-Trainer, teammate, teenager, scum, dirt, slut, snack, enemy, prey, cool, freak.

But most importantly,

Fiery Sapphire.

* * *

End! Huzzah! Um… Yeah. By the way, I have exams Wed.-Friday. So…The next chapter will be coming, but it may take a while. Sorry! Gotta keep my grades up! (When I started writing, my grades in English have been going up! Writing helps!) By the way, my little brother has begun writing a story called "Fiery Ruby" XD. I'm his role model XD. It's funny because it says he was watching Waillmer and this Mudkip comes up and starts saying yo mama jokes to him. Bye! Alright! Bye! (Don't y'all love how I leave cliffhangers on so many different things?) This is Flameboo, over and out!


	6. Mission Impossible: Idiot

Hello there, and welcome to another chapter of Fiery Sapphire! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and review! (Hint, hint) Enjoy reading, and…all the people who belong to the Anti-Trainer Society belong to me, as does Donovan, and Charles and Feolan. And Ellen! Happy reading!

* * *

Fiery Sapphire- Chapter 6

The marble halls echoed as Donovan's heeled boots clicked their way to The Boss's Room. Oh God, did Donovan hate this part of the day; the part of the day were things could get very, very-

Uncomfortable.

The executive mumbled a curse as he pushed the doors open the room and swaggered in, looking around. "Boss!" he called. "I'm here."

The room was dark, and Donovan brightened. Maybe Giovanni wasn't here! But wait, a glimmer of light, and once again, he would have to confront him.

Giovanni wearily turned on a brass lamp and grinned at Donovan. The Boss, once again, had the insane glint to his dark eyes, the hide-melting smile, and the oil-slick hair. He positioned himself in the chair, still smiling, as the young man walked in.

_Shit_, he thought, _is that guy usually creepy, or is he just acting weird?_ _What the hell does his wife think?_

"Well Mr. Kyler…" Giovanni said quietly, drumming his fingers on the end of his seat. "Is everything in order in terms of the Anti-Trainers?"

"No..."

"No? Hmm, that's too bad."

"Uh...yeah. Gold was there, and he had this...teen with him. Some weird girl. Tall, lanky, brown hair, gray eyes, kind of sickly-pale looking if you ask me."

Giovanni leaned forward in his seat. "Not that I don't care about the physical appearance of new Anti-Trainers, but let me ask you this. _Did...you...stop...them_?"

"No," he replied bluntly. He wasn't going to let the Boss's intimidating personality faze him like everyone else. "No, because all I had was my shitty little Pikachu." He paused to fish a pack of cigarette out of his pocket and let one, taking a long breath of smoke.

Well, the man wasn't too pleased to see one of his employees smoking and acting casual in front of him. No, he was of formal nature. "Put out that cigarette," he commanded coldly.

Donovan frowned but nevertheless stamped it out. _Yeah, I'll put it out. Put it out in your eye._

Giovanni quietly stood up to face the executive, ignoring his Persian who weaved around his feet and mewed for attention, pressing itself against his pants leg. "Do you know how much time and money was put into the cross breeding of a Pikachu and a Sableye?" The Boss asked suddenly.

"Not much," the young man answered, feeling the need to say something incredibly witty. "You just get the two Pokemon together an-"

"NEVER MIND THAT," he snarled. "Back to the Anti-Trainers. Now, that new girl. The sickly one, you said. Kill her."

He stifled a pathetic laugh. "Uh, that's my job...killing. Where could I find her?"

Giovanni narrowed his eyes and put his hands behind his back, looking off in thought. His cold, calculating mind was terrifyingly fast and accurate, and he soon came up with an answer. "This is a scenario: if the girl joined the Anti-Trainers, then they would tell her...to collect the badges." He smiled, seemly catching onto the plan. Or was he? " Try Vermillion City. Look around, ask questions; scout out the area. I'm sure you'll find something to tell you were to go."

Donovan nodded.

The Boss nodded. "Goodbye."

OoO

Donovan's heels clicked along the marble hallway once again and lit another cigarette. He grumbled about his job; about his current situation.

No, he wasn't picked for the job randomly, trying to kill the Anti-Trainers, no. It was his jealously that got him into this. He could still remember… He was in collage, yeah, collage. Donovan was the best student in his class. Except for him. Miguel. The smart one. Donovan always made accomplishments far better then him, but the professors ignored him. It was always, "Miguel this, and Miguel that!" his was sick of it. So he dropped out of college. And went to work where he was truly appreciated. He was ranked Third- in Command. Third. Why not first, or even second? He wasn't even appreciated in the Rocket Corporation.

No folks, it wasn't power, love, or money that corrupted Donovan. It was jealously. Pure jealously.

* * *

"And the sixty-ninth reason this was a sucky idea is that-"

"FEOLAN, WILL YOU _SHUT UP_?" Ellen screamed. Charles was huddled on the ground and singing to himself, rocking back and forth. They were now in front of the Cerulean Gym, a small, quaint, light blue building. The girl jumped up from where she was sitting and threw her hands out in the air. "I don't want to fight that prep!" she exclaimed wildly. "I hate battling! The only fighting _I'm _good at is fist fighting. And I suck at that too!"

"If you're not fighting her," Feolan seconded, "then _I'm_ not fighting her!"

"Ditto." Charles got up from the ground.

"So it's settled," Ellen assumed. "We won't fight her."

"But how the heck are we going to get the badge?" The Poochyena placed his little white paws on the window and peered into the gym. "The place is like, flooded; Charles can't swim, and if I went in, the girl would probably kiss my and pet me, and other crap like that."

"What if I went in?"

Feolan burst out laughing and rolled on the ground, kicking up dust and grass. "YOU? Ha! You would probably swim underwater until you couldn't hold your breath, and then come up and you would be like "AHHH!" And then you would die or something funny like that."

"Feolan, you're such a helpful Pokémon."

"I take that as sarcasm, Charles?"

"Exactly."

Ellen's burnt out light bulb miraculously became bright again and she grinned. "I have an idea! What if Misty was…say, out somewhere? We could just sneak in and take the badge!"

"But what about the girls that stand around and ask you to battle?" questioned Charles, as he struck a very actiony pose.

"We'll take care of them!" yelled Feolan, as he struck a fighting pose.

"O.K!" said Ellen, getting back to normal. "First step."

_Phase one- Status: Beginning_

Ellen dialed Miguel's number. After a few dial tones, the bespeckled, freckled face appeared on-screen. "Hey, FS! Back so soon? What's up?" He paused for a second, and his stared at her for a bit. "Wait...why are you and Feolan dressed in tight black spandex?"

Well, they admitted that they just got so caught up in the whole badge-stealing thing and told him a bit about their plan.

"Isn't that illegal to steal a badge?" the young man questioned.

"Oh, um…I'll look that up later," the girl answered quickly. "But right now, I need to ask you a favor."

"Fire away."

"Can you ask Misty on a date?"

Miguel blushed profusely and frowned. "Whoa! That's a pretty random request. Um…if it gets you the badge, then I guess its okay..."

"Great. Meet me in front of the gym in 5 minutes."

"O.K…Um, just a question, do you think I should wear a suit, or jeans?"

Ellen rolled her eyes and prepared to turn off the phone. "Um…kzzzzt! Oh, um, Gold, Gold, can you hear me? I- kdsjgriruleszzzz! I think we're breaking up-fhistusuckzzzz! Um, see you in 5 minutes! By-ffhzzzziamcooladfisn!" When Ellen stopped making ridiculous phone noises, she waited for Miguel.

When he appeared, he was dressed in jeans and a white polo, and a pair of sunglasses shielded his eyes. A bouquet of roses he grasped firmly in his sweaty hand.

"How do I look?" Miguel asked.

Feolan walked over to a trash can and threw up.

Charles hid his eyes.

"Well, all I can say is that… nobody messes with a guy in shades. O.K, go in their, and knock yourself out, tiger." Miguel grinned, gave her a thumbs-up and ran into the gym. Ellen didn't even want to watch. She just hid behind a trash can with Feolan. After five minutes, Miguel came out, arm linked with Misty's. He winked in Ellen direction, and took Misty across the bridge.

_­Phase one- Status: Complete_

Feolan crept from the hiding spot and said, "O.K, now what do we do?"

"Correction. What do you do? Well go on, distract them."

_Phase two- Status: Beginning_

Feolan put his top hat on and walked into the gym. The two girls in bathing suits looked at him. And when I write bathing suits, I mean itsy, bitsy, teeny, weenie, yellow polka dot bikinis. And Feolan wagged his adorable little tail and barked. The girls went crazy over him, gushing over the 'cute widdle Poochie' who could of bitten both their heads off if he wanted too.

But that was another story.

Meanwhile, Ellen snuck into the gym and swam through the crystal clear water, praying she wouldn't be spotted. She wasn't stealing, O.K? She was _borrowing_. There's a difference. She submerged and saw a case of badges. "Wow. Misty must give these out a lot," she muttered to herself, and picked one up. She took a deep breath and swam to the front again. The Anti-Trainer quietly slipped out the door, as Feolan took the roses thrown at him and departed.

_Phase two- Status: Complete. Final Phase Complete._

Ellen rapped a towel around her hair as Miguel and Misty came back from the date. The Gym Leader looked very pleased with herself, grinning at everyone she spotted, and Miguel had lipstick on his cheek and collar of his shirt. As Misty waved goodbye to him, the young man smiled sheepishly and waved back.

Miguel was still in the goofy trance as Ellen slapped him in the face and yelled, "SNAP OUTA IT! YOU'RE ACTING ALL DRUNK!" Miguel felt his cheek and smiled once more, and with a wave goodbye, he walked back to the Anti-Trainers. "He is one jacked up guy," Ellen commented, and Feolan and Charles agreed.

"So." Charles broke the silence. "We got the Water badge, now we go to get the Thunder badge."

"Yup," the girl agreed. She opened up her recently acquired badge case and fitted the new badge in right next to the Stone Badge. Only six more to go...

"We might as well go," the Charmeleon continued. "Nothing else to do but press on."

And the three walked away.

* * *

Hi! This is Flameboo, finishing another chapie! This most definitely going to be finished and not discontinued. Huzzah for me! Bye! This is Flameboo, over and out!


	7. Bill's Birthday Suit

Hi! (Giggle!) I'm Flameboo, and welcome to another chapter of… Fiery Sapphire! Huzzah! On with the show! (Or chapter!) Thanks for reviewing and keep em' up! I have just one question to The Ghost of Erk. How did you find my story? It was 97th in the story list. Just asking! Exams are over! Whoot! I pwnd them all!111 Story time!

* * *

Fiery Sapphire

"Feolan, get off my leg," Ellen yelled crabbily, pushing the Poochenna off her leg and slinking out of the sleeping bag.

"Charles, get your Charmeleon butt outa my face," yelled Feolan, as he crawled out of the sleeping bag and hit the hard ground. Feolan pulled a groggy Charles out by his tail. Ellen gazed at the stars in the sky, as Feolan and Charles sat next to her.

"So. Its…" Ellen examined her watch. " 7:00 A.M."

"WHAT?" Charles cried, as he peered at Ellen's watch. "Ellen. Its 3 A.M." Charles crossed his arms, and swished his tail. A branch near his tail shriveled up from the heat. "We should get to the Lightning Gym by 7:00. That way, we can get the gym over with and press on. Sound good?"

"No." Feolan covered his face with the sleeping bag and lay down. Ellen sighed and agreed with Feolan. She moved over a protesting Feolan and reclined. Charles gave in, also. They slept as night became morning.

The three continued walking in the morning, feeling refreshed and ready. They were in high sprits as they saw the gym. Ellen ran like the wind, full of energy and happiness.

And then ran into the tree.

"Holy crap!" cried the girl, after falling down. "Who put that there?"

"I did!" said a sinister voice, and a man in a long, black cloak came up. The Anti-Trainer screamed as he laughed manically. Then, he took off his cloak. "I'm the gardener!" he said in a squeaky voice, and then skipped away singing _If You're Happy and you Know it_.

Ellen began to get angry. She saw that the gym was blocked by a tree, and she pulled out an ax. "Chop the tree down! Mwhahaha!" She immediately began trying to chop down the tree. When I write trying, I mean she had no chance of chopping it down. "Come on, darn tree, FALL DOWN!" Ellen gave up when he ax broke. "Charles, torch the tree." Charles tried and tried, but to no avail.

Finally, a random bystander said, "You need to teach your Pokémon the TM Cut. I think the captain on the S.S Anne is the master of cut. Bill has a ticket." She walked away.

"Uh…Thanks random stranger. Bill…Isn't he that eccentric guy who dresses up like Pokémon?"

Feolan said, "He sounds like a crackpot to me. But he sounds rich, so he most likely has the Anne ticket. Let's walk back to Cerulean." So they did, and left the broken ax behind.

OoO

The three adventurers looked up at Bill's home. "You think we can just walk in?" Ellen asked the two Pokémon. She looked at the trainers she had beaten up to get to Bill's house. It was always, "I want to battle with you!" or "Jigglypuff, I chose you!"

"We might as well," said Charles, and he knocked on the door. No one answered, so they slowly pushed open the door. It was a fairly normal house, except for the large machine in the back and the small Eevee that sat in the middle of the room, a depressed look on it's face. Ellen ran up to it and kneeled down. "Hey there," she said, grinning at the Eevee. "D'you know where Bill is? We need a ticket for a boat and some random guy said he had them."

The Eevee's eyes grew to the size of bowling balls, and he said, in English, "I _am_ Bill." Ellen's nerves jumped at the sight of an English speaking Eevee with an English accent. "Oh don't worry, I won't tell a soul," 'Bill' continued, waving his paw in the air as if it was nothing at all. "I believe it's wonderful to communicate with Pokémon. I wish I could do it. Well, enough talk. Can you assist me in changing back to a human? I was experimenting, and I made a mistake in my calculations."

"Yeah. We'll help you, man," Feolan said. Bill noted he could understand Pokémon, and he showed them the machine. He explained the unexpectedly simple mechanics of the device, and Bill entered the DNA teleporter. The girl flicked a large switch, as instructed.

There were some cool lights, and disco music. A grinning Bill came out like a new man.

Naked.

"HOLY SHIT!" Ellen screamed, shielding her eyes. "IT BURNS, IT BURNS! Put some clothes on!" Ellen tossed him some random clothes on the floor, and Bill quickly suited himself in a polo and khakis.

"There. Good as new!" the man exclaimed jovially, smoothing down his ruffled brown hair. "Well, I believe some thanks are in order." He majestically bowed and handed Ellen a ticket, as wanted. "Thank you."

Ellen snorted with laughter. "Yeah man, any time. Anytime I want a totally embarrassing situation..."

"Come to me," he finished, and they both exchanged awkward looks.

"Okay…maybe _not_," the girl said, and they left.

* * *

End of Chapter! Sorry it was kinda short, but that's the way the cookie crumbles! Oh well!

Whoot!

This is Flameboo, over and out!


	8. And the Murder Rates Go Flying

**Special Authoress Note-**

Hi! I have a notice for all of you readers. I will not be updating this story for two weeks due to… X-TREME VACATIONING! Sorry guys! When I get back, I'm gonna type my fingers off!

P.S- This chapter is going to be short, 'cause I don't want to hurry the next chapters.

-This is Flameboo, over and out!

* * *

Fiery Sapphire

Chapter 8

The Underground Tunnel- Dark, dank, and useful. Those are the only words to describe it with.

As Ellen and the gang walked back to Vermillion City, the troupe had begun to get a little bored and began joking around, taking advantage of their separation from the outside world. Ellen ran around the tunnel, crashing into potted plants and walls and any other sort of thing that was in her way, including a very angry Charmeleon.

"Ellen! Feolan," Charles barked, grabbing his trainer by the cuff of her jeans. She stopped immediately and looked down at him.

"Sup Charles?" she asked.

"Yeah _mom_," Feolan said, pronouncing 'mom' very slowly.

The Charmeleon narrowed his eyes at his teammates jest and heaved a sigh. "We need to get to the S.S Anne to get the HM. Might I remind you...we're actually doing something important now. Remember Red? Gold? Crystal?" Ellen nodded sheepishly and kicked a bit of dirt up with her tattered sneaker. "Ellen, remember. _You're_ Fiery Sapphire now."

Fiery Sapphire bit her lower lip and nodded again. She'd never thought of it _that_ way. It sound so...important.

"Now stop fooling around and come on!" Charles barked, and pushed them on through the tunnel.

OoO

Donovan casually walked up the S.S Anne, sporting a very smart, very conservative gray suit. No black for him today, and certainly no ridiculous boots. Despite his obvious lack of height and standing at a towering 5'5, the Rocket executive had to admit- he looked pretty darn good. He flipped out his pocket calendar. He had waited a day, all right. Now, time to get this over with so he could get back to Silph Co. with just enough time to rub elbows with the Boss and show him his immediate success in eradicating the brand new Anti-trainer.

As the man and his demented Pikachu meandered down the catwalk to the boat, a rather small, lanky man in a suit and tie stopped them and demanded that he have their tickets. The man swept an arm in front of Donovan to stop him and eyed the young man with a seething glance.

"Tickets, please," he growled.

Donovan smiled thinly at the man, despite his growing anger. The little shit was even taller than he was! And no one could order him around like that.

Except for Giovanni, of course.

As the ticket man rolled his eyes in Donovan's slow response to his demand, the executive glanced around for any witnesses. None. It was only four o'clock; everyone would be inside for dinner. Immediately Donovan grabbed hold of his arm and pushed him against the back ally of the nearby Pokémart.

He pulled out a knife.

The man tried to scream, by its trainer's command Donovan Jr. leapt up onto the man's shoulder and ground it's sharp little teeth together, sending a weak jolt of electricity through the ticket taker's body. He froze up.

Donovan grinned.

And stabbed him.

Through the face.

After the man's heart had stopped, and his face was nothing more than a bloody mix of flesh and bone, Donovan Jr. made a sort of shrieking noise, fur bristled up, and it cautiously stuck its nose in the blood. It snorted, retreated quickly, and pawed at its mouth and nose. Once it was sure that the corpse was nothing more than its next meal, it began to eat.

Donovan cracked his knuckles and stuffed his hands in his pockets, along with the knife. He watched the Pikachu for a minute before glancing around again and then saying, "Well Jr., I'll let you stay here for a while. But come back to the boat, alright?"

The Pokémon stared at Donovan with blank, lifeless eyes, before continuing his dirty work. It seemed to acknowledge his command with a dull sense of, 'okay, whatever. Now let me eat.'

And Donovan did just that, and boarded the S.S. Anne.

OoO

About an hour later, Ellen and co. walked into Vermillion City and saw the S.S Anne towering over the city. Both the city and the boat were huge, Vermilion City being a city of apartments, shops, and hotels all crammed into one area. On the skyline, the S.S. Anne stood as tall as the steeple of the local Vermillion cathedral. The cruse ship was painted a shocking red and shone as if it had been just polished (which it probably had.)

"Dude," Feolan said, padding up the steps of the underground tunnel to meet the warm evening light. He flattened his ears back out of surprise. "That's one big boat."

"Yeah," agreed Ellen. The girl looked around and grinned. She loved being in a city like this. There was so much life; so much to do…it was amazing. "Hey guys, maybe after we beat the Gym here we can look around."

Charles coughed loudly. "Ahem. _Anti-Trainers._"

"Oh, lay off!" Ellen pulled the ticket out of her pocket, and examined it for a few seconds before the group were swept into a crowd of people and onto the streets of Vermillion.

After many miscalculations of which direction they were heading in, and where exactly the boat was; Ellen had to settle for a taxi, which cost her more money then she would have hoped for.

"Well, at least we're here!" Charles said brightly, admiring the seaside. "It might have taken us much longer if we walked."

"That's because Ellen have absolutely no sense of direction," Feolan growled. He stopped to take a breath.

As the girl got out of the taxi, the driver rolled down his window. He was a thin, spindly, dark-skinned man and eyed Ellen and the boat. He connected two and two.

"Are you sure yer…um…goin' on that boat? No offence, but you don't look like the type of girl to go to fancy parties. And Vermilion's a pretty tough place."

"I doubt it," was all that Ellen said.

"Highest murder rate in the region."

The Anti-Trainer frowned and shot him a disbelieving look. "Then why'd they put a big fancy boat here?"

He shrugged. "Don't ask me. I'm just a taxi driver."

And he sped away.

"Now, let's get going." Ellen turned back around to face Feolan. She blinked and looked around. "Where'd Charles go?"

She soon found out.

Something grabbed onto her leg, and she looked down to see Charles, hugging her shin, eyes clamped shut and teeth set in grit. "I saw something bad," he said.

Feolan rolled his eyes. "Holy crap, Charles. Don't tell me you snuck into one of those clubs. You know that the-"

"IT'S NOT THAT!" he barked hoarsely, and let his arms fall. Feolan cleared his attitude and sat down; ready to listen to his teammate Charles's voice resumed its normal tone. "I went to the Pokémart to see if I could get some food. You know, act cute for the sales person and see if they'd spare anything." He paused to sniff and wipe his eye with the back of his claw. "It didn't work, and they kicked me out. So I decided to go in the back way and see if I could get anything. But when I got to the back…"

"Yeah?" asked Ellen.

"Lemme guess," the Poochyena said. "They didn't have any of your favorite food."

The Charmeleon threw Feolan a glare. "There was this guy. His face was all messed up; all bloody and gross. And there was a big hole in it…and he was all cold and ridged and…dead."

Ellen faltered a bit, and she tensed up as if someone was going to 'get' her that very second. "Listen Charles, the taxi driver said that this city had the highest murder rate in the region. I'm sure it's…um…nothing to worry about. The less we get involved the better."

"But we should report it to the police," he piped in.

She tugged on his claw. "The police can find out it about it soon enough. Now let's just get on the boat. It's safer there. Now…where's the ticket taker."

"THAT'S WHAT I'M TRYING TO TELL YOU!" Charles yelled angrily. "The guy looked like he was pretty well off in life. Like he was dressed for a special occasion or something! Listen, I bet someone on the boat is a murder."

"Fat chance," Feolan spat, snorting with laughter. "Come on, don't be a wuss. It's just a coincidence."

"Famous last words," Ellen said jokingly, climbing aboard the boat but taking one last worried look in the direction of the Pokémart. "Famous last words."

OoO

It's over! (For now!) Bye! REVIEW!


	9. Shopping with Drunks

I am back! After horrible sunburn and 20 pounds of cooling gel, I'm back! Whoop de doo! Bla. I'm feeling hyper because I just had ONE Sobe energy drink for who knows why. FINK RATS! MWHAHAHA!

* * *

Chapter 9

A chorus of 'ohhs' and 'ahhs' could be heard from the three traveling dunces as they boarded the ship, awestruck. Clearly, they was a party going on, because colorful and decorative streamers adorned the ship, and a large sign boasted 'WELCOME TO THE S.S ANNE, THE BEST SHIP IN THE WHOLE DAMN WORLD!' Famous and rich- looking casually walked around, while a few ice-breakers stood in a large group, chatting.

**"You think there's a party going on?" **asked Charles, observing some of the scantily clad women and female Pokémon.

**"Obviously, Charles. Look at all the snooty people!"** cried Feolan, giving Charles a noogie. The Charmeleon rubbed his head and threw a glare at the Poochyena before continuing to walk.

**"Guys, stop fighting and being dumasses,"** said Ellen, whacking them both upside the head. She suddenly pointed to a man over on the other side of the boat**. "Look. A sailor! We can ask him where we can find the captain!"** Ellen began to run to then sailor.

**"Or to find our room, for that matter,"** mumbled Charles. **"I'm tired."**

* * *

Donovan threw a mass of styling gel onto the dead animal inhabiting his head and spiked it. He examined his hair with green eyes while Donovan Jr. chewed on a golden lamppost. 

**"I like this…yeah; I think I'll keep my hair this way."** Donovan turned to the demented Pikachu. **"How do you like it?"** Donovan Jr. cocked his head before electrocuting the light bulb perched atop the lamppost, and sending shards of glass everywhere.

**"Holy crap, Donovan Jr.! What the hell!"** Donovan threw himself behind the bed and shouted **"HIT THE DECK!"** before crawling under the bed. When the whole ordeal was over, the zombie gurgled happily before continuing the biting of the lamppost.

Donovan crawled out from under the bead and made his way across the room to his mirror. He examined his hair to find it ruined. **"You stupid Pikachu! You ruined my hair, and got glass in it! Now I'll have to fix it all over again for the party! It's sheer torture! Master said not to be late to the party, so we can find the girl! Now I'll be late! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"**

* * *

**"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"** cried the sailor, hopping up on one foot after Ellen kicked him. **"I already told ya, you can't see Capn' right now! Wait till tonight at the party, and you can see him!"**

**"Fine!"** yelled Ellen, **"But answer me one question, butt!"**

**"What is it?"**

**"What's my room number?"**

**"Eh, let me see your ticket,"** said the sailor, and Ellen handed it to him. He inspected it for a few seconds. **"You room is number 5."** Ellen yelled thanks to the sailor before giving him one last kick, and then disappeared into her room.

Ellen began to panic after rooting around through all the contents in her backpack. **"Ohcrap, oh crap, oh crap!"** she cried, flinging her backpack away and running around the room.

**"Ellen!"** sang Charles. **"What the heck is wrong with you!"**

**"I can't find a dress for the party, and I'm claustrophobic!"** cried Ellen, still running around the small room and crashing into a well-placed wall.

**"Well,"** mumbled Feolan, flipping through a Playboy magazine, **"Why don't we call Marylyn? She seems like the kind of person to shop, shop, and shop."**

**"Great idea, pervert!"** said Ellen, taking out her new cell phone and clicking on the Contact HOMIES.

A few dial tones were made before Ellen heard background noise witch sounded like: 'Darn you, Gold! Can't you make cell phones easier to use?' a board Miguel answered back. 'No.' Russell finally appeared on the screen. **"Fiery Sapphire!"** he cried. **"What do ya need?"**

**"Hi Red! I need to speak with Marylyn."**

**"You mean Crystal?"**

Ellen sighed and rolled her eyes**. "Yes. I mean Crystal."**

Russell turned away from the phone and chucked it to Marylyn, while shouting, **"CATCH!"** Marylyn screamed and caught it, as a 'nice catch!' could be heard in the background. She flipped her hair around before speaking to Ellen.

**"Hello Sapphire, darling! What the hell do you want?"** Marylyn said in a dramatic voice.

**"Oh! This is great!"** whispered Charles. **"She's to drunk to say no!"**

**"Sapphire!"** yelled Marylyn**. "What on earth is that Charmeleon saying?"**

Ellen hesitated for a bit. **"Uh…er…he said that he loves you."** Ellen was instantly scratched. **"Gosh damnit, Charles! I was only kidding!"** said Ellen, giving him an obscene finger gesture. **"Yeah…Crystal…I need to buy a dress."**

**"Oh goodie gumdrops! WEEEEEEEEEE!" **Marylyn jumped up and spilled alcohol over her blue dress after cheering. **"This will be so fun! I want to pay for everything! Oh, how I love shopping, it's so fun and expensive!"**

**"Its o.k., I'll pay for my dress…"**

**"NONSENSE, DEAR! I do enjoy to buy, buy, and buy! Meet me at the Cerulean gym, posthaste!"** Ellen was cut off, and the three, blown over by Marylyn drunkenness, walked to the gym.

The Musketeers met Marylyn there with a large Alteria. **"Darlings, meet my Alteria, Duchess! Isn't she beautiful? Plus, she can fly!"** Marylyn hugged the bird.

**"I'm a male, you drunkard,"** hissed Duchess, as he ruffled his feathers and stuck his long neck out.

**"Well, we'll be flying to the world famous Celadon Shopping Mart! Hop on!"** and with that, Marylyn jumped on Duchess, and yelled **"MUSH!"** Ellen and her Pokémon scrambled on Duchess, right before he left the ground.

**"This is Pokémon abuse!"** squawked Duchess. **"Get your fatbutts of my back!"**

**"Use fly, my darling!"** screamed Marylyn, and up they bizarrely flew. They hardly got off the sidewalk, and crashed into some well placed trees. **"Don't worry, you'll get used to it!"** said Marylyn. Charles disagreed by throwing up on a random passerby, who turned out to be Ash Ketchum.

**"Uh, Ellen…" **stammered Charles**, "I threw up on a Pokémon Master…"**

"**Who was it?"**

**"Ash Ketchum."**

**"All right Charles!"** Ellen slapped him a hive-five and Feolan punched him on the arm, which caused him to throw up again.

**"This is going to be a long trip…"** moaned Ellen.

When the unbelievably long trip was over, the four jumped off the pissed off bird's back and entered the department store. When they entered the dress level, Marylyn piled roughly fifty horribly ugly dresses on top of Ellen, and yelled**, "PICK ONE!"**

Ellen looked around the store, ignoring the pile before finding a black dress. **"How about this one?"** she asked Marylyn.

**"No, no, no! It's summer! SUMMER! Pastel colors, NOW!"** Marylyn screeched. Apparently she had a second martini.

**"You know,"** Feolan whispered to Ellen**, "When she gets a hangover, she's going to be a living hell."**

**"Yeah, I know. That's why I plan to get away from her fast."** Ellen rummaged around the store before finding a dress she didn't despise.

"**Marylyn! Is this a good dress?"** Ellen called, showing her a peach strapless dress.

Marylyn's hangover had begun. **"Yeah, that's fine. Gimme it so I can pay for it,"** she slurred drunkenly. So, when she was finished paying, they flew back to the ship. Actually, nothing eventful happened on the fly back, and Marylyn literally dropped Ellen and crew on the boat, with her dress. **"Bye. Check Please."** With that, Marylyn flew away.

Ellen asked a random sailor what time the party was, and he said it started at six o'clock. Ellen checked her watch**. "Six! Its five forty right now!"** Ellen scrambled to her room and threw on the dress. Feolan tried to watch her, but she kicked them both out of the room. When she called them back in, she only had time to kill the knots in her hair and walk out**. "I'm ready!"** she called in a heroic voice, and then she tripped one of her heels and fell on Feolan, who cursed nastily**. "I'm O.K!" **she cried, before looking at the two Pokémon. **"Charles, why are you wearing a Hawaiian shirt? This is a suit and tie event!"**

**"Uh, well..."** stammered Charles, fooling around with one of his buttons, **"Since its summer, I wanted to be in the spirit!"**

**"Fine whatever, huzzah for you. Now Feolan…why aren't you wearing a shirt?"**

**"I'm too sexy for my shirt."**

**"You know what? Fine. Can we just get to the party?"** The two Pokémon agreed. And they walked to the doors to the party. **"Let's go."** Said Ellen, and they walked in.

* * *

_Meh. I'm tired of writing for tonight, so the party will wait till next chapter. My energy ran out. Well, until next chapter!_

_-This is Flameboo, over and out!_


	10. The Party Crashers

Fiery Sapphire

OoO

As soon as the three had walked into the party, their minds were suddenly overcome with a chaos of noise, music, and sight. The ballroom of the boat, with marble floors and tall, elegant walls, seemed to pulsate with the excitement it contained. Men, women, and children mingled, couples danced, the Pokémon congealed in corners and exchanged gossip about who was mating with so-and-so and who had just rejected what's-their-name. 

Compared to the women she was looking at, Ellen Adler felt vastly repulsive compared to them. The dress, peach-colored and strapless, was too large for bony and misshapen form, and her ribs could be seen clearly through the tight-fitting middle section. What would have been her bust was flat and inexistent, her shoulders hunched as if against the wind. Hair matted, face gaunt, she willed herself to stay in the shadows.

On the other hand, Feolan admired himself constantly at his combed and preened fur, white as a cloud. "Man, not that I'm bragging or anything, but I look pretty damn good!"

Charles straightened his little red bowtie strapped around his neck and cleared his throat, looking up at Ellen. "Well, you look nice. I'd never imagine in a thousand years that I'd ever get to attend a S.S Anne party. Maybe you can just relax for a bit; take some time off."

The girl shrugged, her face grave and bored. "Yeah, I guess…but…I don't really belong here. I mean, I look…"

"Dead?" asked Feolan, and a bit unhelpfully at that.

"Uh, no. Listen, never mind." She shook her head and scanned the area. "I'm gonna go find the Captain and get the Cut TM from him, you guys go and have fun."

"Really?" Charles allowed a tiny grin. Feolan was already staring lecherously at a female Mightyena on the other side of the room. "I mean, you don't need us? We can go for now?"

She shrugged. "Sure, it's not that hard."

The two Pokémon looked at each other, grinning like mad, and scampered off. Feeling quite conspicuous, Ellen sidled from the doorway and to the punch table.  
OoO  
Feolan and Charles soon were over in a corner with the Pokémon, nervously trying to fit into the tight circle composed of varieties of Pokémon. The albino Poochena was half-heartedly talking to a Psyduck about Kanto, and the Charmeleon had struck up a fascinating conversation with a female Charmeleon named Blaze. From across the circle, a female Mightyena smiled coyly at Feolan. He practically melted while slipping from his side of the circle to her own.

Feolan, already perspiring, grinned sheepishly at the Mightyena. Unlike the normal black fur, she had a wonderful tawny color paired with blue eyes. A Shiny Pokémon. "Uh…heh, hey! Hey! Yeah...I saw you looking at me…er—" Holy Mew, would someone turn the air conditioning on? "My name's Feolan. What's yours?"

The Mightyena looked away, as if thinking, and said, "Dora. Short for Adora."

"Oh, wow. Nice name." He grinned fiercely, pausing to clear his throat nervously. He opened his mouth to say something else, but he was interrupted.

"Yes, you heard me correctly." a hotheaded Pidgeotto chirped to another Pokémon. "In fact, I do support them. Listen, in a place like Kanto, Team Rocket is the only group with a sense of leadership. All the stupid Pokémon League does is look good for the press. There's no action there. What. So. Ever."

"Are you insane?" a Persian asked, his smooth voice cracked with disagreement. "Team Rocket may have a iron-hold on it's government, but they're cruel and wrong. They wouldn't do any good for us, and all the humans would get would be a boom in economy and unity. There would be no freedom. It was be totalitarian."

"Well, you would know," the bird responded coldly.

Deeply offended, the feline hissed, "Just because I'm a Persian does not mean that I side with Team Rocket. I am, in fact, totally against them, and I would appreciate if you would not judge so quickly."

"Whaaa?" Feolan asked, already lost.

Pidgeotto clacked her beak. "Well, you—"

"Excuse me," interrupted Charles eloquently, "but I do have to agree with Persian. You're being to quick to judge and, honestly, discourteous. Team Rocket employs all Pokémon in their services, I can guess that if there is an abundance of one Pokémon, than they have either captured or controlled them to come. Please, my friend and I," he gestured to Feolan, "have already had two audiences with Team Rocket, and they were not pleasant experiences. I have to say that a good, upstanding Pokémon like Persian would even think of joining them."

There was silence. The neatness of Charles's speech was overwhelming, enough so that Pidgeotto mumbled to herself and sauntered away. Feolan felt a bit jealous, though, that his comrade could summarize such a defense.

"Wow," he said to himself. "Charles sure can talk. Especially about Team Rocket."

Dora/Adora nodded, smiling. "You're right. But I bet you could, too."

Feolan beamed. "Yup. My line is, Team Rocket is bad."

OoO

Donovan lit a cigarette, quietly slipping into a shadowed corner after he noticed the 'No Smoking' sign cheerfully plastered on the doorway. He could not afford to be kicked out now. Looking down at Donovan Jr. (currently babbling and drooling), he said, "All right, listen up, Donny Jr. You go over to that side," he pointed to the left, "and I'll stay over on this side. Keep an eye out for Sickly Girl, and if you find her…listen, just kill her yourself. I really don't feel like doing this. I got nothing against her, I'd rather it be Miguel than some stupid teenager. But, whatever. I'm talking to a friggin' zombie Pikachu." As if to agree, Donovan Jr. nodded, crossed its eyes, drooled, and began hobbling over to the Pokémon side.

'Wow, I need a life,' Donovan thought.

The Rocket executive leaned back against the wall, procrastinating. From his gray suit pocket he pulled a knife, and thankfully, the light was too dim for anyone to notice. The knife was a simple kitchen knife, large and incredibly deadly. He liked it very much; it was better than some stupid revolver that Giovanni toted around. Hell, he probably had a better chance at killing the Boss with this that the Boss killing him with the revolver. Not that it was going to happen, anyway.

Yeah, he wished.

Finally, he put the knife away and sauntered into the crowd. Time to get back to wo—Hey, why not waste more time? Yeah! Dancing with hot babes! Why not? He had his boots on, he was as tall as any of them!

In fact, he really disliked the fact that he was going to kill Sickly Girl. It was like he'd developed this weird friendship with her. Or kinship, at least. Hell, they were both a bit out of it, he guessed that she didn't really care about much anything at all…he sort of wished she was in Team Rocket. She looked like the kind of weirdo who'd join, and he'd be happy to pass on his position as Rocket executive to someone else. He was ready to get out of that place. She could even have Donovan Jr. and the knife.

He mentally shook himself out of the daze. What was he thinking? Had the booze already gotten to him? He was not an excessive drinker, he drank only one can of beer. Not wasteful like Giovanni.

Slowly beginning to people-watch, he leaned against one of the expansive walls and scanned the crowd of color: purple, blue, black, red, orange—such a change from the normal black and red he was so…fond of seeing. Minutes passed, until he finally came from his reclusive stance and ended up meeting and dancing with a young woman named Kirra.

He had a very nice time.

Except for the hour to come, of course.

OoO

At the moment, Ellen was submerged in a large crowd of people, timidly asking them if they knew where the captain was. No one seemed to know, though, or they were too preoccupied with their company. After a bit, Ellen felt as though she would never find the captain, let alone depart from the ship.

Suddenly, a very elegant figure swept up to her, tapping her thin shoulder. She turned to see Brendan, although he was much more regal. His hair was combed and parted in the middle, and he wore peach pants, a coat, and tails— and gloves, too, white gloves, and an elegant walking stick.

"Uh, Brendan?" Ellen asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise. "What're you doin' here?"

"Dear, Ellen," he exclaimed happily, grinning and spreading his arms out. "I was invited by a Writer's Association! So glad to see you haven't staved, suffocated, or frozen to death!" He kissed her on the face. "Now, the question that is most at hand: why are you here? And how've you been?"

"Bill invited me. I gotta find this Captain guy to get this Cut HM so I can go to the Gym in Vermillion." She paused to answer his last question. "Pretty good. Hey, listen, d'ya know where this guy is?"

The writer frowned, rubbing his chin. "Hmm, excellent question…I believe he left for his cabin, seasick. A bit of an oxymoron, no?"

Ellen let out a snarl of frustration. "Damn, I came to this party for nuthin'? Shit!"

"Ah, oh well. Enjoy yourself. But, before that…" he looped his arm around her shoulder, instructing her to look at a rather handsome young man. "Now, as a…as a female, do you think he's attractive?"

"Um," said Ellen.

"I do. He seems like a Sydney Carton, although not willing to risk his life for a woman. A man, maybe, a lover. So! Any comments, thoughts, or suggestions?"

Her head was reeling from the questions. "Shit, Brendan, I…I've never had a boyfriend before…I dunno…"

"Oh," he said, disappointed. "Your hormones haven't been up and working yet, hmm? Well, that's all right. I'll just go at him anyway." He smiled at her and patted her bony back. "Despite all that, thanks."

She shrugged, smirking. "Yeah, whatever. Good luck…" The girl picked some spinach from her teeth and walked away.

OoO

Feolan drank more of his soda, lying confidently, "So, then, I met this Rocket, and he caught me, and then when he took me to Mt. Moon… uh… I killed him."

Adora smiled. "Wow! I never knew you had such an interesting life! You really are great!" she emphasized 'are' as Charles walked up to them.

"Hello, lovebirds!" the two blushed. "Have you met my friend, Blaze?" A small Charmeleon walked up next to Charles and waved sheepishly while batting her eyelashes. "Yeah," continued Charles, "I never felt so energetic before. This is great!"

Suddenly, Adora screamed and jumped into Feolan arms. He grinned smugly. "Look!" she screamed, and pointed at an irritated Donovan Jr. lumbering toward them. "Who is that? What is that?" she gasped as Feolan lowered her to the ground.

"Don't worry, Adora. I'll take it from here." Feolan said bravely, as he walked up to Jr. They stared at each other for awhile, until Jr. couldn't take it anymore.

"Brains, BRAINS!" it shrieked, flinging itself at Feolan. He quickly ducked out of the way as the Pikachu met the ground and made a dull thumping noise. When Feolan turned around, he saw Jr. had a new victim.

"Feolan!" Adora screeched, terrified, as Jr. ran at her, "Help!"

Feolan gave a loud roar and jumped on the back of the Pikachu. Jr. flung itself onto the ground, trying in vain to get Feolan off. Feolan gripped the Pikachu's back with his claws. It gave an undead scream before it's started charging up power. Feolan immediately jumped off its back right before Jr. created a huge Thunderbolt aimed at Feolan. "Oh Crap." Feolan thought of what to do. "Holy Crap! What do I do? I can't run away in front of Adora! Uh…"

Feolan didn't have to think anymore, for Charles had crept up on Jr. and torched Donovan Jr.'s back. The Pikachu made gurgling noises and twitched a bit before bearing its fangs and crawling away. "All right Feolan!" said Charles, slapping him on the back. "Now that's the Feolan I know! Oh coarse, I helped a little bit, so give me some credit!" Feolan agreed.

"Feolan!" cried Adora, running up to him. They hugged. "Feolan, you were so brave!" She gave him a Mightyena kiss on the cheek. Feolan smiled. "I really sorry I couldn't help!" she explained. "I've really never battled before… My trainer kind of spoils me. I'm her prized Pokémon."

"Well, yeah. It's O.k." Feolan said, before quickly changing the subject. "I told you I was good at fighting!" said Feolan to Adora. "Nobody messes with me!"

OoO

As Donovan was grinding with Kirra, much to the displeasure of the older partygoers, he saw a tall skeleton move from the room. He cursed his luck as he also saw Donovan Jr. crawling towards him, babbling incoherently. The man turned to Kirra, slightly embarrassed. "Oh, um, 'scuse me, but…I've got to go. Other matters, if you catch my drift." He pulled away, but the woman pulled out a phone number and gave it to him. She mouthed the words 'call me' as Donovan left.

Ellen had finally found the Captain's Room, due to seeing the gold plate on the wall saying, 'Captain's Room— Don't come in. Ever.' As obnoxious people went, she walked in without asking.

"Oh crap, I should have knocked…" the girl muttered as she saw the elderly Captain vomit into a bucket. "Listen, Mister, I'm sorry to bother you, but I need the HM Cut. Right now."

The Captain vomited again.

Ellen slapped him on the back with great strength. It didn't work.

Finally, she heaved a chair over her head and threw it at the captain. "STOP BEING SEASICK!"  
He immediately recovered.

"Wow! Thanks lassie," he exclaimed spiritedly. You helped me a lot, and for that, here's Cut." For some reason, the man was miraculously unhurt. The Captain handed over a disk. "Teach it to one of your Pokémon, and it can cut down trees!"

"Yeah, thanks a lot," she muttered sarcastically. "A high powered chainsaw can't do it, but a move called 'Cut' can! Damn trees…" she slammed the door on the way out. Three times. No, wait, make that four. FIVE!

When finally she reached her room, she began to pack her bag. The general cleaning up followed— the changing into jeans and a tee-shirt, collecting the tiny bottles of shampoo for the road, the stealing of bar food without necessarily paying…Ellen, in fact, had never been to such a elegant hotel, and reaped the benefits. Upon leaving her room, she felt as though she had forgotten something very important.

"Oh, shit!" she cried, slapping her forehead. "I forgot Feolan and Charles! Duh." Upon walking back to the door of the party, her foot snagged on something and she fell to the floor, cursing madly. "Ah, godamnit...that was dumb…so stupid…"

"Hullo," Donovan said, appearing around a corner. He had a rather dangerous-looking knife poorly concealed behind his back. "Long time no see, right?"

Ellen's eyes popped open at seeing the Rocket again, and she scrabbled to stand up. "You're— you're that guy with the women's boots!" Indeed, she looked at his feet to see the slightly kinky boots.

"Certainly," he said sagely, twirling the knife in his fingers. "And you're that new Anti-Trainer."

Ellen looked down at the floor.

"Giovanni wants me to 'massacre' you."

The girl stumbled back slightly, nerves taut and ready to run at any moment. Oddly enough, she felt like crying. She had never been confronted with death before. "Fuck."

"I know, I'm not to keen on it, either. But, you know—"

The young Anti-Trainer sprang away. Despite Donovan being a strong runner, his heeled boots slowed him down enough for Ellen to burst into the party, darting to the Pokémon side of the floor. "Feolan, Charles, we need to go!" she screamed, picking the two up. Feolan sadly waved goodbye to Adora, and she waved back to him forlornly.

"Ellen? What's happening? Where are we going?" cried Charles hoarsely, kicking his legs in displeasure. "Put me down!"

The girl gasped in between words. "Donovan's…behind…us. Just…run…" She dropped the two, panting heavily, and they raced along side her.

Minutes later, Feolan began to tire rapidly, tongue lolling from mouth. "Awww, shit…" wheezed Feolan, "I can't run anymore…I'm so tired…I feel all weird!" Ellen fiercely shook her head and pointed behind them. He looked to see Donovan dashing full speed, holding a knife. This, all in all, was a very good reason to continue running.

"AIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAI! FLAENKFNDFERJEKAAAA!" Completely randomly, Donovan Jr. leapt from the top of a room to impede them from running any further, drool pooling from his mouth.

Caught, Ellen's mind whirled in confusion. In a fit of chaos, she turned to collide head on with Donovan. The two crashed, each uttering curses and protests. It was Donovan who fell, though, for his boots were not meant for such activity. As the girl stumbled a bit, disoriented, he grabbed her wrist and jerked it fiercely to the ground, aiming his knife at her throat.

At the last moment, she moved. The knife plunged into her arm, slicing through skin, muscle, and almost bone. Immediately she began to cry, howling from pain and fear.

"Ellen!" Charles gasped, turning to his trainer. Feolan walked up to Donovan Jr. and punched him in the face, throwing him off to the side as if non-important.

"Lemme go…Lemme—" she kicked his face; there was a terrible scream, and off she flew.

"Come on, guys!" Ellen ran, although she was losing energy and blood. As the two Pokémon surpassed her, Ellen saw two things. One, there was the door was to get out, which was close ahead, and two, the boat was moving away from the dock. Donovan now ran horizontal to Ellen, and it was a race to the finish. Donovan veered over to Ellen and roughly grabbed her arm. Ellen yelled and desperately tried to keep running. "Feolan, Charles!" she cried. Feolan and Charles came into few. Donovan yelled and brought his knife down. Ellen narrowly avoided it, curled her free hand into a fist, and brought it down on his shoulder holding her arm. His grip loosened a bit and Donovan winced in pain. Ellen ripped her arm from his grasp, and was only 10 feet from the door.

"No!" Donovan screeched, running madly and swinging his knife blindly in the air. Ellen sprinted to the Pokémon and picked them up. She saw the boat was beginning to move farther from the dock.

"Hold on!" Ellen yelled over the wind, as she scrambled up the side of the boat. The ship was now five feet away from the dock. She jumped. No, I don't mean in the air. I mean over the side of the boat, to the dock. Ellen and crew landed on the dock in a heap, sprawled on the ground. The three could hear Donovan's curses from the boat. And finally, after all they went through, there was a flash of light, and Ellen said, her words muffled by fur, "Holy Shit, a Pokémon just evolved on my face."

OoO

I would like you to remember all of Donovan's thoughts for the future. For the very, very far future.


	11. A Slightly Unorthodox Way

I have nothing to say besides; I own all my characters, nothing else. Hup! This is going to be more of a funny chapter. I don't own Jell-O.

* * *

Fiery Sapphire 11!

"Jesus, Feolan! Get the hell off my face!"

The Mightyena grinned and stood up, staring at his paws, his back, his tail; anything that he could admire about the new him. He was bigger now, roughly up to Ellen's hips, but still the same white color, the same bleak red eyes.

"Wow," Feolan said finally, his voice slightly more mature, "I evolved."

"Duh," Ellen grunted.

"That means I'm stronger, right?"

"Duh."

He snickered. "All right!"

"_Feolan_!" Charles finally silenced the wolf Pokémon, stood up, and brushed the dirt off of himself. "If you haven't noticed, our Anti-Trainer has sort of gone through a…oh, I don't know…_life threatening event_!"

"But she's alive," he contradicted.

"That's…not…the…_point_."

"Well sure it is! If she was dead we'd be dead to, so I understand the whole thing!"

Charles mumbled something to the effect of, 'devoid of any concern,' and hobbled over to Ellen who was still on the ground. He leaned over her, wide-eyed, and regarded the sullen look on her face and the large cut on her shoulder.

"Oh my Mew!" he cried hoarsely, pointing at the cut with a shaking claw, "that's probably been bleeding for an hour now! LOSS OF BLOOD, LOSS OF BLOOD! ELLEN, YOU LOST TO MUCH BLOOD, OH SWEEET LUGIA, YOU ESCAPED DEATH ONCE BUT NOW IT CAUGHT YOU AGAIN, OH MY HO-OH, WHAT'S A CHARMELEON TO DO?"

"Charles," Ellen said softly, shaking him on the arm.

"OH NO, OH NO! I CAN'T LOSE MY ANTI-TRAINER! WHO'S GOING TO SUPPLY US WITH OUR DAILY NEEDS? WHO'S GOING TO PROTECT US FROM TEAM ROCKET? WHO'S GOING TO MAKE ME FEEL _SMART_?"

"Charles…"

The Charmeleon finally broke down into tears and beat his fists on the ground, snout pushed into a tuft of grass sprouting out from the sidewalk. A light turned on in one of the faraway buildings and a figure poked its head out the window to see what all the commotion was.

"Charles!" Ellen finally exclaimed, and forced his head up to look at her. Still sniveling, Charles looked at her and suddenly realized that as he had been screaming and fretting about her, she had already bandaged up her cut. "Charles…_look_, you ass. It better now. See?"

He rubbed his eyes with his claws. "Okay…"

Feolan looked at both of them and burst into peals of laughter. "You guys are pathetic. Now come on, pull yourselves together and let's get a hotel room or something. It's late, and I want room service."

"Um…" The Anti-Trainer pulled out her wallet and peered inside, leafing through the money with her gloved hand. "I've got a five…another five…and a couple of ones."

"WELL THAT'S NOT ENOUGH FOR ROOM SERVICE!" Feolan yelled, whacking her with his paw.

"Feolan, you idiot, that's not even enough for a hotel room!" Charles muttered.

"Oh…right. So, whada we do now?"

Ellen said: "Maybe someone would let us stay for free. Hey…remember we saw the Diglet Cave when we got lost in Vermillion?"

"No," the Charmeleon answered, "I was too preoccupied with getting lost."

"Whatever. Well, there was this cave full of Diglet there. Maybe if we talk to them a little, you know, explain our situation; they'll let us in."

Feolan cocked his eyebrow and then glared at her with exasperation. "And why would we want to stay in some smelly old cave?"

"Hot damn, Feolan! Just come on…we're living by the skin of our teeth here, okay?"

And after a bit of persuading from the Anti-Trainer, the group stood up and made for Diglet Cave.

OoO

As the group entered Diglet Cave, a musty, earthy scent was already sitting in the dank cave, mingling with the humidity of the air. The only other human there was a frail old man guarding the cave in case of any 'troublemakers.'

"I don't see how an old geezer like that could stop anyone, but…" Feolan didn't get to finish his statement because of a sharp elbow jab in the stomach by Charles.

Anyway, one little Diglet was in plain view in the main part of the cave, a cute, mole-like creature. Sensing another presence, the creature squealed and ducked down back into its hole, just as Ellen trotted up to it and peered down its burrow.

"YO!" she called, her voice echoing off the walls of stone and dirt. "We need to place to stay for a while! Does anyone care?"

"Yup, yup!" The little Diglet popped her head up from the hole and regarded her through seemingly blind eyes, blinking a bit. "Hiya, stranger!" she peeped cheerfully, furry body shivering with mirth, "normally we'd welcome all Pokémon here for the night, but you're a human, so _tough luck_!"

Ellen raised an eyebrow. "Are Diglet…species-ist or something?"

The mole replied with a sinister giggle. "Oh no, no, no…we don't just want you to stay the night…we want you to stay…_forever_…"

As the Diglet slowly disappeared into her hole, still giggling manically, and Ellen looked around the cave, it became apparent that the cavernous walls were stacked high with human skulls, leering at the group from the ceiling, walls, and even as she looked down little fragments of bone were imbedded in the soil.

"_HOLY SHIT_!" The girl screamed, turned on her heel, and stumbled away, tennis shoes flying at an unbelievable pace until she found herself sprawled out on the ground, victim of a small, unseen Diglet hole.

As her two Pokémon backed up next to her, the whole population of Diglet appeared from the ground, sharp incisors dripping with saliva.

A Dugtrio cackled manically and exclaimed, "dibs on the arms!"

"Dips on the legs!" another piped up.

"Heart!"

"Lungs!"

"Head!"

"Neck!"

"Back!"

The Little Diglet from before popped up in front of Ellen and declared, "Dibs on the cartilage!"

That was it. The girl sprang up, ignoring the horde of Diglet that lunged at her ankle, and sprinted away. At one point a Dugtrio reared up in front of her, hissing. Feolan took this into his own paws and attacked it, closing his jaws around on of its heads. The mole uttered a cry and ducked back underground.

"FOOLISH PREY," the Little Diglet boomed, slithering up from her hole to dislodge two huge, razor-sharp scythes. "YOU CAN _NEVER ESCAPE_!"

But they did. So ha-ha.

Ellen was the first to reach the exit, pushing the old man out of the way and shimmying up the ladder as fast as her legs could take her. Feolan was next, whimpering as he struggled to use his paws on the ladder, the pads of them slipping off occasionally, and Charles lead the rear, catching onto one of the rungs and nimbly leaping up to solid ground.

The old man peered up the ladder, utterly confused by the entire racket.

"Hey!" the elder called after them, and rested his hand on one of the rungs, unbeknownst to him that a group of rabid Pokémon was closing in fast. "Why are you running? The Diglet and Dugtrio are completely harmless…oh…why, it's all the Diglet and Dugtrio…what a pleasant surprise…oh…wait…oh no…! Oh no, what are you doing! OH MY MEW, WHAT'S HAPPE- _ARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH_!"

And the old man's terrified screams slowly drifted away, mixing with the satisfied crunches and slurps of a hundred mole Pokémon enjoying a light snack.

OoO

"You say a horde of rabid Diglet and Dugtrio attacked you, eh?" The Head of the Pokémon Fan Club stroked his miniature goatee thoughtfully and shrugged. "Well…normally I wouldn't believe it, but you do look a bit disheveled…"

"Thank you," Ellen said automatically.

The Head frowned at her and exclaimed, "Wait! I never said you could stay were. We just don't accept persons of the lower-class just out of the blue, now do we, Muk?"

On cue, the Muk bubbled, content.

"Excuse me?" the Anti-Trainer hissed, taking a step forward. "_Lower-class_?"

He shook his head and made a small tsk-tsk noise. "Poor girl. In order to stay here, you need to know a bit about me, now don't you…?"

Charles eyed him. "Uhh, Ellen? This guy is freaky. You really don't _want_ to stay here…do you?"

"You _must_ hear about my Muk," he said forcefully to her, "if you want to stay here for the night."

"Fine."

"Great! Now, where do I begin…? Ah yes, my Muk is so slimy… oh, how I love it….oozing…it poisons me, but I don't care! It's so majestic, how it slithers along like Jell-O…its stench is _so_ unimaginably bad… yet so _beautiful_…it creates horrible carpet stains that I clean out with love… and when it uses Sludge bomb on me, I know its it's own special way of saying '_I love you_.' And I _must_ tell you about my Aipom… its smile brings me such great joy…especially when it screeches at me and how I love its-"

The man stopped speaking and slowly frowned, blinking. He cleared his throat, patted his chest and then itched at his ankle.

"Hello?" he asked timidly, but the group had left out of pure madness.

OoO

"I _can't_ believe we'd be so stupid as to actually ask for a room," Charles grumbled to himself, staring out at the black waves cascading across the Vermillion Bay. A particularly large wave crashed up against the harbor, sending a spray of water in Feolan's face. "What with this kind of city, I doubt we'll ever have enough money to travel. And with Team Rocket lurking around…"

"Don't remind me," Ellen growled, and plopped down on the ground. "It's almost four in the morning, anyway. We might as well just grab a soda somewhere and hope the caffeine holds us 'till tonight."

"Let's hope the Gym Leader isn't crazy," the Charmeleon muttered, and began to count on his claws. "Brock was a pervert…Misty was a floozy…and…" he heaved a great sigh. "Six more to go, and then the Elite Four. And then Rocket Headquarters…"

"If we survive," Feolan said cheerfully, enjoying the cool mist of the bay. "I wonder when our angsty friend Donovan will be back! I admire that guy. You've got to have a lot of guts to wear women's boots."

The two others stared at him.

"You amaze me, Feolan."

"You're an idiot, Feolan."

The Mightyena grinned.

OoO

Donovan _was_ really wondering when he would be back.

He stared coldly at the roaring waves that broke against the hull of the ship, happy to have gained a bit of height again with his boots. The dull ache in his shoulder had quickly dissipated, but a small bruise had formed from the Anti-Trainer's punch.

"Shit," he mumbled to himself, and lit a cigarette. Shit, shit, _shit_. When he failed a mission…well…no raise, no praise, that's what First-in-Command always said.

Of course, she was a total asshole, so what did it matter?

The executive jabbed his cigarette on the rim of the boat thoughtfully. He didn't have anything personal against the Anti-Trainers, save Miguel, but that girl…was disturbing. That...God, weird one. Sick Girl. She looked like she was sick or something; she didn't have a very healthy tinge.

_Well_, he thought gravely, _that's probably a good thing. Now Giovanni won't want to rape her or something sick like that. _

He hadn't dealt with Anti-Trainers a lot, in fact, he'd only gotten three. This one little shrimpy teen…stabbed him in the back. But he didn't know if he'd actually died, the others came running…and then the black-haired girl, stabbed…_again_, and this time dead for sure…and finally that muscular guy. Let's just say he got a face full of…Donovan Jr.

On cue, the zombie Pikachu bounded up behind him and squeaked, balancing itself on the edge of the boat. Donovan had a crazy urge to push it off, but just as he had decided to do just that Kirra appeared with her frizzy head of orange mirth and joy.

"Hi _Donny_!" she squealed, grinning insanely as she puttered up to Donovan and gave him a small hug. "The party was to _die for_, huh? And the drinks were great, I had…like…five…woo!" She giggled and stumbled a bit until she placed her elbows on the edge of the boat and leaned over to Donovan, still chuckling. "Why'd ya have to leave so soon?"

"Work," he answered bluntly.

Kirra stared at him solemnly and finally asked, barely above a whisper, "Donny?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you, like, an assassin?"

Donovan winced mentally and hoped she was of the following: drunk, kidding, or…drunk.

"Tell me…"

"Yes," he said meekly, inching away from her.

She pursed her lips at him. "What…sort of weapons do you use?"

"Knives…" he winced, waiting for the impact.

"Really," his girlfriend drawled, tapping a thoughtful finger on her lip. She paused for a moment before confessing, "Personally, I enjoy using AK-47s."

_Umm…,_ Donovan thought. _Um. _

When Kirra saw his expression, she giggled wickedly. "I didn't tell you yet? Oh _goodness_! Silly me…! Well, I guess this'll come as a surprise to you, but…_I'm_ an assassin, too!"

"You're kidding," Donovan said, voice slowly heightening in surprise. "You're kidding!" he exclaimed again. "Who do you work for?"

"Team Aqua," she admitted as if speaking about the weather, and peered up at the early morning sky, a multitude of grays and peaches. "I was sent here to find the Captain of the ship, but I never did."

He stared at her with admiration. "Damn! You're pretty high up in the rankings to be out of region."

"No kidding. Archie going to be pretty mad, through, once I get back…in a week…"

"A week? This cruse is a _week_?" the Executive groaned, exasperation tearing him apart. He threw his cigarette overboard and watched as the little addiction sank beneath the waves. "Just my luck."

"Ditto," she stated.

"You could always come back with me and work for Team Rocket," Donovan offered to his girlfriend, gesturing with his hand.

She gasped audibly and grabbed Donovan Jr, bringing it into a rip-cracking hug. The little zombie didn't mind, though, and babbled happily. "Are you _serious_? I can really come with you?"

"Sure! Why wouldn't I be serious?"

Kirra shrugged. "I dunno, people can kid around. But this is great! Weeee, I'm gonna have a boyfriend! Weeeeee!" she giggled. "I'm so happy!"

"Yeah," Donovan agreed, and began to walk back to his room, Kirra dancing and skipping behind him. He had a bad feeling about the whole Anti-Trainer mess and Sick Girl, too…one way or another, it was going to get him into some deep shit…

OoO

Slowly, tauntingly, the HM disk fell off of Charles's head for the sixth time.

Teach Cut to Charles was harder than expected, especially with the crest upon his head. The directions that came with the HM clearly stated that in order to learn the move, the disk must be placed on the Pokémon's head. Unfortunately, the makers didn't take Charmeleons into effect…

Ellen's hands were shaking as she placed the HM on Charles's forehead one last time, and took a gulp of the large coffee she had ordered from _Moondollars_, the coffee franchise. The girl hadn't been very healthy lately; in fact faint purple circles ran under her eyes and her mind worked slower than usual. She needed a good rest.

"Are you _ready_ yet?" Charles grumbled, tapping his foot impatiently. "We've been here forever."

"I'm comin', I'm comin'…" she rubbed her eye with the back of her hand and tried one last time. Surprisingly, the HM stayed put and a blinding flash filled the early morning sky, waking Feolan up with a jolt.

"Wha…? OH MEW, MY EYES!" The Mightyena ducked back down and laid his head on the sidewalk, stretching like a Persian. "Uh…talk about a rude awakening…"

"You're lucky you even slept," the Anti-Trainer spat at him, tossing the HM back in her backpack. Charles held up his claws to his face and wiggled them a bit, noticing the overall sharper and more precise form. "Now come on, let's get this Gym over with."

The Charmeleon looked at the girl as they began to walk. "Maybe we should try and find a place to relax for today…you look pretty bad, I hate to say."

"An Anti-Trainer's work is never done," she muttered sagely.

Halfway to the Gym, there was the flash of a camera. In the back ally of the Pokémart a thick crowd was forming, people huddled together in clumps, speaking rapidly and fretfully. A camera man snapped another shot of the ticket collector's deformed cadaver outlined by white chalk as a reporter yakked over her microphone, constantly checking behind her at the body. The Anti-Trainer caught a few of her words.

'…and it seems that once again the notorious Team Rocket is behind this. The National Region Police quote that they'll be on this case as quickly as they can…'

Charles snorted. "Please. Don't talk to me about the NRP. Yeah, 'be on the case' my tail." He snorted again and looked back at the body. Suddenly his face changed, a look of horror spreading across his reptilian features, and he said finally, "Ellen…Feolan, do you think that…"

"Yeah," Ellen answered dully, and glanced at the gash on her shoulder.

They reached the Gym quickly and quietly, heads down, swiftly moving at the pace of the other city dwellers. After Charles had cleared the tree out of the way, the three stepped through the automatic doors and saw one of the most disturbing things they would ever see in their lives.

Just kidding. That would come later.

Lt. Surge was a huge man, at least 6'6, and further increased his height by wearing thick, worn military boots. He displayed his ripped muscles with an army uniform rolled up to the elbows, and his bright blonde hair was gelled and stuck up in little tufts here and there.

As the three entered, the group was Lt. Surge parading around the Gym while the other three trainers who inhabited his Gym followed him around, marching in lock step.

"_I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'VE BEEN TOLD_!" screamed Surge, yelling at the top of his lungs. The smallest trainer in the back of the line shed silent, scared tears, glancing up at the Gym Leader with fright.

"_I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'VE BEEN TOLD_!" repeated the trainers, giving the Gym Leader a brisk salute.

"KEEP ON WALKING YOU'LL NEVER GET OLD!"

"KEEP ON WALKING YOU'LL NEVER GET OLD!"

"SOUND OFF!"

"ONE, TWO!"

"SOUND OFF!"

"THREE, FOUR!

"SOUND OF-"

The huge man whipped around to see a lanky, pale girl standing behind him, arm poised in mid-tap. He uttered a sort of acknowledging growl and rubbed his five o'clock shadow, letting his hand fall. "Em," he grumbled to Ellen. "I take it you're here for a Gym battle, Little Miss?"

"_Little Miss_?" she repeated disgustingly. "_Little Miss_? But yeah, I am here for a battle."

"You don't look so good," the leader commented in a jagged voice. "You're pretty rough and tumble for such a beginner."

"But I want to fight."

"Sure? Why, when I was in the Army we always got plenty of rest and re-"

"_But I want to fight_," she hissed coldly, jerking her head at him. "Or are you scared?"

Surge stared at her before uttering a sharp bark of laughter, and gestured to the other trainers. They scattered back to their normal positions, throwing thankful looks at Ellen. "SCARED?" he boomed, backing up a bit. He pulled a Pokéball from his cameo-green belt. "No one's called me scared since Vietnam! And believe me, Miss, we were _all_ scared."

With that he tossed the Pokéball on the ground, sending out a Pikachu, the sickeningly cute little mouse.

Charles rolled his eyes and stepped forward. "Please. Donovan Jr. gave me more of a scare than this little…turd." The Charmeleon grinned.

Until the Pikachu spoke.

"DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BEAT ME?" it screamed in a surprisingly harsh voice, scrunching its eyes up in concentration. The Charmeleon ducked out of the way as a thunderbolt crashed down in the Gym, sending Ellen and Feolan scuttling back against the far corner.

Lt. Surge smirked at her in a good-natured sort of way as another flash of light lit up the area and Charles was throw back, body corrupted by at least eight volts of electricity. The Charmeleon opened his eyes slowly and squinted at the Pikachu, a deep growl growing in his throat. He'd show that mouse…show him his claws…

"HA!" the Leader cried. "Pikachu, Thunderbolt!"

"Oh, holy shit!" Ellen cried, "Charles, just run! We can't do this!"

Feolan suddenly jumped out in front of her. "Who says?" he growled at her. The Mightyena lowered his back legs and sprang off the ground. He hit the Pikachu with a thud and the two rolled across the Gym floor, scratching and biting.

The tiny Pikachu finally reacted to his enemy and executed another thunderbolt, this time directed at _himself_. When the bolt hit Feolan was thrown back, howling with pain. His fur was smoldering from the electric power, and for a second he froze up, as if paralyzed, but soon became limber again.

"Not working!" Charles said simply, and turned his back at the battling.

Ellen turned to him, exasperated, and bent down. She put both hands on his shoulders and shook them, yelling, "THEN WHAT DO WE DO?"

He cocked his eyebrow at her. "You feel like going back to Diglet Cave?"

And as the group forfeited from the match, and they walked out of the Gym, Lt. Surge's cry echoed in their ears.

"YOU DON'T HAVE WHAT IT TAKES, _DO _YOU?"

OoO

All was quiet at Lt. Surge's gym.

He had given the trainers a break for once, and that annoying girl had chickened out. The commander frowned. Huh, he was a little disappointed she had left. She looked like a pretty tough Miss, and they didn't come around to often…it took a lot of guts in anyone to think like that.

The ground shook.

Lt. Surge looked up from the book he was reading, frowned, and dropped it on the floor.

The ground shook again, this time louder.

He stood and was prepared to travel outside. Earthquakes were so rare in this part of Kanto…his face tightened up, nerves taut. Earthquakes. Ground Pokémon. The Diglets were harmless…but _Ground_ Pokémon…what if…

The man burst out of the Gym to come face to face with a snarling Dugtrio.

He screamed and stumbled back, convinced that all of Kanto was going to be prey to-

Ellen poked her head out from behind the Dugtrio. "I want another battle."

Lt. Surge's jaw dropped. After all that… "You're kidding," he croaked.

"Nope," she said happily, and stared at him, giving the leader a cold eye. "You look pretty freaked. Did I scare ya?"

"You wouldn't understand," he muttered, itching the back of his head and turning back into the Gym. "Now, you wanted a battle…" he glanced behind his shoulder. "Ugh. So I guess you went and captured all Ground Pokémon, huh?"

She grimaced at him. "Why would I do that? I just convinced these guys to help me out a bit."

He snorted. "Yeah? What did ya pay them with?"

"Slabs of meat."

"Ha! Nice joke, Miss, nice joke…now come on, I want to get this over with…"

Ellen entered with her Pokémon plus the five or six mole Pokémon she brought along and stood against the leader's Pikachu once more.

The mouse took one look at the moles and shrugged. "Heck, I'm screwed."

He braced himself for impact.

And, oh, what an impact he got.

The Dugtrio and Diglet practically murdered the poor thing. By the time it was over the Pikachu was lying on its side. His breath came in short, desperate gasps, and Surge calmly returned him to his Pokéball.

"I surrender!" he cried finally, putting his hands mockingly in the air. He offered her a grin, eighty dollars, and a Thunderbadge, handing the little thunderbolt pin to her with a sweep of his hand. "Its kids like you that make me want to become a trainer again," he admitted to her.

Ellen resisted the urge to yell: 'I'M AN ANTI-TRAINER!' and instead said, "Really?"

"Ha! _No_, I lied. You couldn't pay me a million bucks to hit the road again! Ugh, everything was so bad back then. All of the Gym Leaders were so…God…so snobby. I mean, when I was a Trainer Blaine still had hair, Sabrina still had enough money…Koga didn't host a Ninja School…and the last Leader. Young, pompous, and…" he shook his head and offered her a sympathetic look. "Vindictive. And more. But enough of that, I'm scaring ya."

"Not really."

"…"

"…What, am I supposed to be scared?"

"I was hoping for some suspenseful questions. You know…'who's Blaine…' and 'How did Sabrina lose all her money' and…uh…" he cleared his throat and nudged her with his elbow. "And… 'Who's the last Gym Leader…' _Huhemm_!" He coughed louder.

Charles yawned at him tiredly after ushering the group of mole Pokémon. "I'm tired. Let's go hit the hotels and call it a day."

"Yeah," agreed Feolan. "Let's go."

And as they walked away, Lt. Surge sunk his head in defeat. He probably should have told her…

_Well_, he thought, remembering an old friend of his, _at least she's not an Anti-Trainer_…

And the Gym doors closed, shutting Surge away.

OoO

And that is ze end of the chappie. Tootles! REVIEW!


	12. The Tripping Idiots

Here we are.

* * *

Fiery Sapphire- Chap 12

**"Hi! I see you have Pokémon! Let's battle!"** SMASH! Ellen's gloved hand met a young trainer's face.

**"No!"** spat Ellen, narrowing her eyes. The three were on their way to the Rock Tunnel, and Ellen didn't want to be bothered.

Another peppy young Camper ran up to them. **"It's battle time!" **he crowed happily, pulling out a Pokéball with presumably a Jigglypuff inside. Charles thought he would have some fun and marched up to the trainer.

**"No!"** he mimicked. Charles reached up to punch his face, but was a little to small. He had to settle on setting his green shorts on fire.

Feolan scratched a passing Hiker as they walked to the Tunnel. **"So Ellen…how long will it take to get through the Rock Tunnel?"**

**"Dunno."** Ellen said bleakly. **"Probably about an hour or two. Depends if we have any trouble."** They stopped at a small Pokémon Center.

Charles' eyes lit up. "**Oh, Feolan! You need to have a Therapy Session! It's the best! First they…"** Charles' voice trailed off as he took Feolan into the Pokémon Center. Ellen sighed and followed them into the Pokécenter.

As Feolan and Charles were carried off by roughly a thousand Nurse Joys, Ellen placed herself on a seat next to a yellow caped boy. He glanced at Ellen ad scooted over closer to her.

**"Do you know Lavender town is haunted?"** he whispered, looking around innocently. Ellen gave him a 'what the heck are you talking about smile;' and moved to the other side of the room.

She was met by another weirdo. A short, chunky man said to her, **"I found this nugget. So I sold it for $5000! Yup, picked it my self."**

Ellen saw Charles and Feolan come out, and slapped the man as she was leaving. **"That's incredibly gross! How can you sell boogers for $5000?"**

So, the three walked outside, and climbed the ladder down to the cave. As soon as they entered the cave, Ellen tripped on someone. **"Ouch!"** That someone cried, falling on Ellen. The other thing stood in his place, laughing at the other figures.

**"You guys are so dumb!"** joked the someone, who was probably Feolan. Then, he tripped to.

**"Uh…Ellen?"** Asked the voice of Charles**. "You have flash, right? Now would be a good time to use it, because we're going to look like blind idiots stumbling around."**

**"Well Mr. Smarty,"** said Ellen testily, "**Which one of us has fire on their butt?"** Charles looked at his tail, which was dimly burning.

**"Right."** Charles clenched his small fists and increased the brightness and size of his flame. Ellen and Feolan we're illuminated by the light. **"Now we're ready to go!" **sang Charles happily.

So, the three walked, singing merry tunes while Feolan played the harpsichord. **"Hey Feolan, where did you get that harpsichord?"** asked Ellen.

**"Uh…EBay."** Lied Feolan; and Ellen began to sing again.

**"My name is Ellen, I want a melon, and I'm not gel' in, my name is not Helen, I am not a felon…"** Ellen couldn't think of anymore rhymes. Feolan tried to sing, but he ended up sounding like a Radicate on drugs. Charles… well, he couldn't think of any rhymes to go with 'Charles.'

**"Yo Ellen! How far are we?"** Feolan asked, taking a seat on the cold ground.

**"I don't know…just come on, you lazy Mightyena!**" Ellen kicked Feolan off the ground, which gave Ellen a nice vacation to Biteland. **"Feolan, you idiot!"** Feolan snickered and continued walking with Charles.

After about two minutes of walking, Ellen's shoe caught on a small stalagmite, and she went sprawling to the ground. Charles and Feolan ran over, as Ellen lifted herself up, and brushed off her legs.

**"You O.K?"** asked Feolan, looking at the stalagmite she tripped on.

**"Yeah, I'm fine, just tripped. You know me, I'm accident prone!"** Ellen joked, laughing half-heartedly.

Charles pointed to her gloves with a claw. **"Whoa, Ellen! You glove ripped, and man is that a big scar! Where did you get it?"** Ellen looked worriedly at her hand, and with horror, realized a large scar on her bare hand was no longer hidden by the glove. Ellen quickly reached into her backpack, and switched that glove with another one.

**"There. Good as new. I must have cut my hand where my gloved was torn."** Ellen said, a quaver in her voice. She shakily continued walking. Charles shrugged at Feolan, which he gave Charles a questioning eyebrow.

After walking some more, Feolan broke the humiliating silence. **"Ellen…"** he moaned**, "I'm thirsty! Gimme some water!"** Feolan stumbled into and dramatically fell to the ground.

**"Here, get drunk on Orange Juice!"** yelled Ellen, pushing a bottle of OJ in Feolan's face. He cheered happily and began to drink it. After Feolan finished, the three rounded corners, climbed down ladders, and hid from a hell of a lot of trainers.

**"Guys, look!" **Charles said excitedly. A glimmer of light was coming from a large opening in the Tunnel. **"It's the end of the cave!" **The three cheered, danced, and walked happily to the exit.

* * *

**"What do you mean we can't get to Lavender Town?"** yelled Ellen, to a boy who was blocking the entrance the city. She walked from the cave exit and up to him. **"You will let us go, or I will move you myself!"** The nerd with black hair laughed and pointed to a Slowpoke on the ground. 

**"You have to get by my Slowpoke, Sleepy, first! Then you can go through!"** he laughed manically, then broke down into an asthma attack. He began to wheeze dangerously until he brought out a retainer.

Meanwhile, Charles was poking the Slowpoke. (No pun intended.) **"It's not moving! Can I just torch it?"** With out waiting for an answer, Charles blew a massive fireball onto the pink lump. As the smoke cleared, everyone (Not including the nerd. He began coughing again from the smoke.) could see that the Sleppy did not look harmed. It did, though, faint nine seconds later.

**"FINE!"** coughed the Nerd, using his retainer and speaking at the same time, **"You can go through! Just don't hurt me!"**

**"Ha! Nerd!"** Ellen laughed, walking into the city. As so as they entered, the three felt a chilly presence. **"Oh! Here's information about the city!"** Ellen pointed to a large sign, and she read it aloud. **"Welcome to Lavender Town- We're a scream! Here you'll find wonderful attractions, such as the Pokémon Tower, a sixty foot tower dedicated to all deceased Pokémon, and trainers alike. We hope you enjoy you stay here, and remember, we always have free nightlights in the lobby of the Tower!"**

Feolan snorted and broke into laughter. **"So let me get this straight. People are so scared of this 'ghost town' they give out free nightlights?"**

**"Apparently!"** snickered Ellen, suddenly looking quickly at her arm. **"Feolan, did you just hit me?"**

**"No. I only do that when I'm mad. Maybe Charles did it."** Feolan looked accusative at Charles.

Charles shook his head. **"No way. I'm to short to reach your arm."** Charles looked at Ellen worriedly. **"What if the sign was right?"** stammered Charles. **"What if the city is haunted?"**

**"I don't know, but I have a feeling the ghosts are coming from the Pokémon Tower. Let's go."** The three left the sign to inform other people, and walked into the huge Tower.

* * *

The chapter is over! Sorry, it was a little short. Anyways, another chapter. Bye people! (Note- I only own my characters, but I don't own the nerd. The guy actually is a Pokemaniac, but I changed him to a nerd.) Also, the yellow caped boy and the nugget man are also real. I just thought I'd make fun of them. 


	13. Effing Ghosts and Tauros

Hello! I have reviewer questions!

Ghost of Erk- People don't like ghosts haunting them, right? They want night lights to scare ghosts away! Like small children are scared of the dark, but give them a nightlight, and POOF! They stop crying. Same with adults. They love the free nightlights! I'd get one myself then sell it on the black market.

Anyways, it's an unlucky number in Lavender Town! Hehehe… (Chap 13)

_Authoress Note!_

_P.S- I will be away next week, so don't expect a chapter that week._

* * *

Fiery Sapphire- Chap 13!

The secretary looked tiredly at Ellen, as she tapped her fingers on her desk. "We're sorry," she droned, "Visiting hours are from 12:00 p.m to 11:00 p.m. It's 11:40 p.m." she yawned and pointed to the sign.

"Come on, please?" pleaded Ellen. "We just need five minutes! Five minutes! We just want to look around."

The annoying secretary continued to drum her fingers mechanically. "I guess I could let you in for five minutes. But that's all." Ellen thanked her a great deal, and she entered the Tower's second floor.

"It's cold up here!" said Feolan, shivering slightly, and walking up to a tombstone. "Hey, look at this! This one says, 'Dearly beloved Onix, friend, battler, and totally annoying freak.' Someone didn't like their Pokémon, did they?"

Charles looked at another one. "Here's a kind of sad one! 'Here lies Marowak, beloved mother, and friend.' Aw… makes me want to cry." Suddenly, and eerie, pale figure rose from the grave. Charles' eyes widened with fear as it slow ascended and looked directly at him. He didn't know what it was, or even see it. He just could feel it was there. No, he could see it, in his mind's eye.

Ellen waved her hand in front of Feolan's face. When that didn't work, she finally looked at what they we staring so intently at. Nothing was there. Ellen squinted and was suddenly bombarded with images of the ghostly figure in her head. "Holy Jebadiah!" Ellen cried, falling down. Her watch beeped, and she looked at it. 12:00. The air was filled with bloodcurdling screams and horrific wailing, as numerous unseen ghosts rose from the dead. Charles and Feolan snapped out of their stupefied state, and ran to Ellen. The ghosts now made a circle around the three, an invisible wall, whispering curses and chanting spells.

"BOO! BOO! BOO! BOO! BOIL, BOIL, TOIL N' TROUBLE! BLA-BLA-BLA! MORE CRAP! BOO! I'M SCARY!"

"STOP! BEGONE!" an old man's voice roared, walking up to Ellen, and brandishing a cane. He helped Ellen up. "My name is Mr. Fiji, it's a pleasure to meet you." He shook Ellen's hand warmly.

"I'm Ellen." She stammered, legs shaking under her own weight. Ellen quickly glanced at her watch, which cheerfully showed 12:10. "This is Charles and Feolan." she said, nodding at them. Fiji waved at the two, and the two waved back.

Mr. Fiji paused a moment before speaking. "Ellen, that wasn't a good idea to go snooping around the Tower late at night. Ghosts," he took a deep breath, considering what to say next. "Do not like to be bothered. Bother them, and they become wild."

Ellen sighed apologetically. "Yeah, I know, but I just wanted to see why the ghosts were haunting the town. Sorry."

"That's alright, just don't do it again with out a Sliph Scope. You can get those cheap in Saffron City." Fiji stated, leading Ellen and friends out of the tower.

"Thanks a lot for saving me and all that. I owe you one." Ellen said guiltily, smiling.

"Yeah, you do owe me one. Now get you're rump to Saffron City." Barked Fiji.

After they had spent the night at the local hotel, (with plenty of nightlights,) the trio was on their way to Saffron City, and Feolan whenlooked up from the ground, he find a Meowth right next to his face, looking at him intently. "Yo!" yelled Feolan angrily at the Meowth. "Get outa my face!"

"My apologies…my apologies…" mumbled the Meowth, stepping back. "Do you know an Ellen?"

"I'm Ellen!" she said, turning to the Meowth.

The Meowth nodded happily and mumbled, "Yes, Alden was right, she does have a connection!" He looked up at a confused Ellen. "Please excuse my mumbling, I tend to do that quite a bit."

"Yeah, yeah, apology accepted. Now, what the hell do you need me for?" asked Ellen impatiently.

"Well, here's it in a nutshell. Recently, we've had trouble with another Pokémon. Now usually, most wild Pokémon are friendly towards other wild ones, but a Tauros has been rather…how should I say this? Unfriendly…no….how about…killing random Meowths that we know and scaring the heck out of everybody."

"Dude. Seems like that Tauros has some problems. So what do you want me to do about it? It's wild Pokémon, not my problem."

"Well, we've tried to cope with it, but it's seems that it's working for Rocket Corporation. It's killing Pokémon, Meowths in particular, because of training, or something like that. It could be lying, though, but hey, can you talk to it, or kill it or something like that?"

"It's still not my problem." Ellen then remembered Russell explaining to her that she would have to defeat the Rockets. Crap. "O.K, so I guess it's my problem now, I'll try. But if I get injured in anyway, your paying the medical bills." The Meowth agreed to this, and he led them to a small patch of grass. They went farther and farther, until they came to a large, sunny area witch was abundant in trees.

"Here it is!" the Meowth said proudly, gesturing to the woodland. The Meowth sighed at Ellen confused expression. "Well of course we don't have houses. What did you expect us to do? Build them?"

"You have opposable thumbs, right? Oh, I forgot, you don't!" laughed Ellen, pointing at the Meowth and doing all the fun things you can do with a thumb.

The Meowth ignored her comment and said, "I guess we should see Elder Alden first. He's over h-" The Meowth was stopped by two voices.

Three other Meowths jumped in front of them. The one to the left had no Meowth ore, and looked shy, yet brimming with energy. The one in the middle had a cold, vacant expression on her face, and the one to the right had a bowler hat on, and had a tweed sweater on. His tuffs of hair on his head were hanging down in front of his yellow eyes, and he was constantly brushing them away.

"I'm Houston!" The one on the right said in an English accent.

"And I'm Michigan!" The one on the left said, with another perfect English accent.

In unison, the two screamed, "AND WE'RE THE LAKE BROTHERS!" the two did a small dance around the middle one.

"This is Kyoshi," explained Houston, gesturing to the quiet Meowth. "She…doesn't speak." Kyoshi glared irritably athim and crossed her arms.

"I have to say…you are all on crack." Laughed Charles. He got a butt whooped like no tomorrow. Feolan agreed with him, and he also had a joyful butt whooping.

"Guess what?"Michigan said excitedly, waving his hyperactive paws up and down. "That blasted Tauros is gone! I and Michigan looked all 'round, and we couldn't find it!"

"What?" An old Meowth came up to the small group. "The Tauros is gone? That's wonderful! Let's have a party and get drunk! Oh! I can dance like a danced 40 years ago! I got jiggy with it!" He twirled his staff around in a circle and caught it.

"This," the Meowth explained, "Is Elder Alden, he's basically the head honcho, the boss, the leader…" he mumbled, continuing until Ellen slapped him.

"Now don't be so mean to Jefferson, here. He's a temperamental Meowth," said Alden, slapping Jeff on the back.

Jeff blushed profusely and stared coldly at Alden. "Well now since the Tauros is gone, we don't have any use for you, Ellen." He smiled casually at her, before Houston and Kyoshi walked up to them.

"Oy! Ellen," said Houston, tugging on Ellen's shorts, "I think Kyoshi here wants to go with you." Kyoshi looked at Ellen and nodded. "She seems to be more open to you then us."

"Yeah, we could always use another butt-kicker." Laughed Ellen, slapping Charles and Feolan hi-fives. Then, Ellen got a strange look on her face. "Do you guys feel something?"

The little group nodded. Michigan and Houston had guilty looks on they face mixed with deranged horror. Jeff was so calm it was scary. Alden had a tired look on his face, while Kyoshi's eyes grew to unexplainable sizes. Jeff then sighed and spoke up. "The Lake Brothers, are always wrong, aren't you guys." Jeff stared a hole in the two, and walked to a near by tree. Jeff pressed his claws into it and stealthy climbed up the tree, while Alden, the Lake Brothers, and Kyoshi followed.

"Good idea!" scoffed Feolan, climbing up the tree and sitting on a large branch with the others, while Charles followed close behind.

"Uh…Guys? I can't climb this tree." Ellen dug her fingers into the wood, but all she seceded in doing was making herself look like an idiot.

"Well go sit in another tree, dumb human!" yelled Jeff, throwing rocks at her.

"Aw, shut up!" retorted Ellen, throwing the rocks back at him. She threw the last rock at him and found another tree. The vibration of the ground was getting louder. She hoisted herself up the tree and lay in a demented pile on the branch. "I got up!" yelled Ellen happily, chucking one last rock at Jeff, but missing and hitting Charles. Charles made a half gurgling half hissing noise before throwing the rock back to Ellen. "Sorry Charles!"

"It's okay, just don't do it again!" he yelled, little arms waving. Now the rumbling was getting closer, Jeff said something to Ellen, but she couldn't hear it, for now the ground was almost like an earthquake.

And then it came. Its black hooves pounded the ground, as it stared ahead in determination. The Tauros stopped in front of the two trees and stared up at them. Ellen waved half-heartedly "Uh…Hi?" it looked up at Ellen, snorted, and rammed her tree. "Guys, a little help here!" Ellen yelped, clinging on her tree branch for dear life. "Hey, you!" she yelled to the Tauros, "Stop it! Who the hell do you think you are?" The Tauros decided it would be more affective if it bit the tree rather then knocking it down.

"Yeah, now I'm really confused." Smirked Feolan. "Seems like that Tauros doesn't know what the heck is going on."

"Ditto, bloke." Said Michigan.

Meanwhile, Ellen continued to speak to it. "So, the shoe said to the cheese… are you even listening to me?" The Tauros continued to ram and bite the tree, which was now shaking violently. "Crud. Now what am I gonna do?" Ellen said to herself. She glanced up at Charles and Feolan. "Yo, guys! Help me out here!"

"Hey, why didn't I think of that before?" said Feolan, as Charles sent flames at the Tauros. Feolan felt darkness contorting itself into a miniature sphere, and he sent the Shadow Ball at the Tauros. The bull flailed around before shaking the attacks off.

"There's only one thing left to do, guys." Ellen smiled secretively and began to count. Feolan and Charles caught on quickly.

"1…" they began in unison, "2…3! DIVEBOMB!" Charles, Feolan, and Ellen all jumped down from their respected trees and landed on the Tauros.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" screamed Jeff, who now saw Kyoshi joining the three. Charles continued to burn it, Feolan bit it, Kyoshi scratched it, and Ellen…well, and Ellen cursed and punched. Finally, the Tauros had enough, and it reared back, tossing the four off it, and ran away, knocking down bushes and shaking the ground.

"That was bloody-" exclaimed Houston.

"Bloody-" rejoiced Michigan.

"BLOODY GOOD WORK!" They cried together, laughing and slapping one another on the back. Kyoshi smiled and looked at Ellen with large yellow eyes.

"This is wonderful! What do you prefer Ellen, Bud Lite or Corona?" said Alden, holding up two cans of beer.

"No thanks, I don't like beer." Said Ellen, pulling Feolan away from the alcoholic drinks. "Well, I guess it's time to go. Thanks for pulling me here for a stupid reason. And Kyoshi, do you still want to travel with me?" Kyoshi nodded happily and stood by Ellen.

Houston ran up to Kyoshi, and sobbed, "No, you can't go, I love you!"

"Obviously." Stated Jeff coolly, pulling Houston away from Kyoshi, and allowing Ellen and Friends to leave. "You loved her ever since you made her a little drawling in kindergarten."

"Eh, Guys?" called Michigan, confused. "Alden got himself all drunk again! I believe we need to find him."

"Holy Crap." Sighed Jeff. "I hate when he gets drunk."

"Ditto." Said Michigan.

"Ditto, blokes." Said Houston, and they walked away.

* * *

Hehehe! I have finished the chapter! Wee! Bye for the week. Half serious, half funny chapter! Brilliant! 

P.S- 'Effing' if a British term meaning 'freaking' or 'crappy.'


	14. The Plant Frenzy

I'm playing Fire Red at the moment, so I'll shut it down. Ha! Charlotte the Charizard laughs in your face!

Ghost of Erk (plus other reviewers/readers) - Yeah, it's kind of weird. It's seems familiar to me, too. Creepy. See, the reason I chose it is because for most of my character names, I just find the meanings. For instance…

Kyoshi: Silence

Alden: Of old age

Bla, bla, bla….yada, yada, on with the chapter. I don't own Dr. Seuss or Pokemon.

* * *

Fiery Sapphire- Chapter 14!

"Stop hitting yourself, Kyoshi, stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!" Feolan said repeatedly, holding Kyoshi's arm and whacking her over and over again with her own hand. The Meowth's eyes narrowed and she stared at the Mightyena with contempt. "Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!"

"Feolan," said Charles quickly, peering over at them, "I _really_ don't think that's a very good idea…"

"Nonsense," he snuffed, and continued. "Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting your-"

_FWING!_

Feolan found himself being pelted with gold coins as Kyoshi smoothly moved away and executed a powerful Pay Day attack.

"_OH SWEET MOTHER MEW_!" the wolf Pokémon screamed, shielding his face with his paws. "_HOLY CRAP, AHHH_! Oh…wait a sec…Your giving me money! Kyoshi, I'm flattered! Soon we'll have enough for that Porsche that Ellen wanted!"

"Speaking of that, how much money _do_ you have, Ellen?" Charles asked.

The girl reached inside her backpack for her wallet and checked. "Uh…all except for about thirty bucks, I'm flat out broke."

"Great!" Feolan stormed. "Now we're screwed _and_ broke!"

"Aww, don't think of it that way…think of it as…uh…yeah, okay. You're right. We _are_ broke."

The crew traveled on for a bit, past the dense forest where the Meowths resided, past where a group of bikers were in the process of a race, and stopped to look up at four people, most likely picketers, holding large, homemade signs saying, 'LET US IN!' and 'THE GUARD IS STUPID!'

"Uh…any reason why you're holding those signs up?" asked Ellen, tapping a tall, blonde girl on the shoulder.

"Yeah!" she yelled in Ellen's ear, displaying the sign in her face. "We want to go to Saffron City! We wanna defeat Team Rocket!"

"The guard won't let us through!" continued a man. "He said something about being thirsty; and Team Rocket is just _sitting_ in Silph Co!"

"What a total oaf!" chimed a woman. "_Huff_. People these days."

"I mean, some old lady gives free tea in Celadon! He could just walk on over!" said another younger man.

Our heroine stared at them for a long while before exclaiming, "Hey! Haven't you ever thought of walking to Celadon, and _giving_ him the tea?"

The four returned her stare, totally mute. Slowly, they turned to face each other, show signs of disapproval, and made up some excuses.

"Broken leg," said the girl.

"I have… Alektorophobia," a man lied.

"My foot is numb." The woman said, pointing to her foot.

"My religion doesn't believe in giving," a younger man explained.

"Fine!" Ellen fumed, throwing her hands in the air. "I'll go get the tea! Oh, you know what else? Next time you wanna get into Silph Co, _don't come cryin' to me_!"

And the groups stomped away to the Underground Path.

OoO

"Yeah, Boss, I know I've disappointed you….yeah…yeah, I get it." Donovan droned, with Kirra standing by his side. _Give me a break, for Mew's sake._ "Yes, I know, but can't you give me another chance…the last one? Really? Thanks Boss."

"Now Mr. Kyler," continued Giovanni on the other end of the line, "I've picked second-in-command for the Celadon Heist. He'll organize and manage the Game Corner, and you'll keep everything going smoothly in Silph Co. Clear? Maybe you should speak with him, to collaborate your plans…you have a plan, correct?"

"Sure. Sure I do." Donovan lied; half thinking he should drop the cell phone over the ship.

"Good," he replied curtly, "and here second-in-command is now. I'm putting him on the line. Goodbye."

"Goodbye Bos-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Donovan was interrupted by a horribly annoying and off-beat voice.

"Donovan meh man!" A voice screamed over the other line, causing the cell phone to vibrate crazily. "Whaz up? Don't worry, D-money, I got it all under control. Funktastic! Let the music play!" The line went dead.

"Who was it?" asked Kirra, scratching Donovan Jr. behind his ears as the zombie purred; content.

"That…" Donovan paused, "…was Second-in-command; and with him organizing, Team Rocket is basically doomed."

OoO

"Yeah! Come on! Let's go to the slots! Wahoo!" Charles seemed like an eager little Charmeleon as he was constantly tugging at Ellen's hand and urging them onto the Game Corner, weaving through the busy streets of Celadon.

Celadon City _was_ nicknamed, 'The city that never sleeps,' and it did seem that people were constantly in motion, heads down, legs moving at an incredible place to get where they were going. It was a fairly clean city, but occasionally a stray Pidgey or Grandbull would shift its way into the scene, sniffing at any foreign objects on the concrete streets. Boasting the largest population in the region, tall apartment complexes had to be built in order to house the many citizens; but the most impressive was the Celadon Mansion, which was as old as the city itself and still remained standing.

"Hey Charles," Feolan asked sarcastically, "what ever happened to 'stick too the mission?'"

"Later," the Charmeleon said absentmindedly, staring up at the huge signs and neon lights with glassy-eyed awe. He suddenly looked ahead and pointed out a huge, concrete building with the name GAME CORNER written on it was red graffiti.

Kyoshi stared at it, frowned, and let out a small 'mew' of disapproval. The water-stained walls and grimy windows troubled her.

Charles consoled her with a pat on the back. "Don't worry. I'm sure it's perfectly safe."

"Famous last words," Ellen muttered, thinking back to the S.S. Anne as peered through the Game Corner window.

Just as they were peering through, a gangly, sickly man departed from the game corner, frowned at them and tapped the girl on the shoulder. "Um…Need anything?"

"Oh yeah. We were just about to go in here."

He shook his head quickly and offered her a look of sympathy. "Sorry, but we just opened. You're timing is a little early. If you come back in say…an hour, two hours, we'll be open and ready for business."

"Well…" Ellen turned from the window, leaving her handprint on it, and turned to face the bustling streets again. "What else is there to do?"

The man shrugged. "Oh, plenty. Celadon's got historical sights, theatre, the Department Store, great restaurants, hotels, a gym…you name it; it's here."

Feolan yawned sleepily, pawed Ellen's arm and said, "Great! Let's check into a hotel and call it a day. I'm beat."

"What's the cheapest hotel that's here?" the Anti-Trainer asked the man.

"Er…I think it's down on 37th by 50th. It's called…The Première, or something like that. But the cheapest you can get here is one-hundred and twenty a night."

The group practically fainted.

"Uh…heh…" Ellen laughed nervously and remembered her thirty dollars. "Do they take loans…?"

OoO

Once they found a reasonably priced hotel and night had come and gone, the group checked out from the hotel after a breakfast at _Moondollars_ and made their way to the Celadon Gym Leader, Erika.

As they were walking, they noticed something very strange. It was as if the entire male population of the city was flocking to the Gym to peer through the large glass windows or climbing on top of the Japanese-esque roof to glance through the sunroof.

"Lookie there! That one," one old guy said, and the others all wolf-whistled.

"They are _hot_!" a small boy exclaimed, trying to nudge his way to the window.

"_MOVE IT_!" yelled Ellen, pushing through the sea of males and opening the door to the gym.

Everything was much quieter in the Gym, presenting the fact that the walls and windows were sound proof. Females of all ages, young and old flitted around the Gym while a young, black-haired woman stood in the middle, smiling and nodding at everyone who passed.

"This is going to be fun!" laughed Charles manically, peering around the floral room. The black-haired woman glanced at them suspiciously. "This is _definitely_ a Grass-type Gym! Piece o' cake!"

"Welcome to the Fourth Gym," she said quietly, bowing her head at them. "I am Erika."

"_I AM ELLEN ADLER, ANTI-TRAINER EXTRAORDINAIRE_!" Ellen declared wildly, sending shivers down Erika's calm, collected spine.

"That's very nice," she mumbled. "You came for a battle?"

"Yeah."

Erika nodded like the flower arranger that she was, removed a Pokéball from her kimono pocket and threw out her first Pokemon, which was a Tangela

"WHERE IS EVERYBODY? I CAN'T SEE! STUPID VINES!" The vine-covered Pokémon was screaming, running around the Gym. Charles sauntered up to Tangela. He poked it on the head and stepped neatly out of the way as it pathetically tried to vine whip him. "WHERE _ARE_ YOU?"

"Over here!" he cried haughtily, running from one place to another. "I'm here! No, I'm here! Now I'm over here! Here! Here!"

"Here?" the Tangela asked timidly, and the Charmeleon opened his mouth and sent a great jet of fire at it, charring and burning the vines until they were only strings. Erika calmly returned it, mumbled something of a 'good job' to Ellen and called out Victreebel. The carnivorous plant looked around, spotted Charles in battle and rapped it's vine around his body, heaving him up into the air.

"Gah!" cried the lizard, pulling at the vine that held him. "Can't breath! Need C-P-R! Ahh!" Charles' face began to turn even redder than before and soon became a lovely blue color; preferably cobalt.

Feolan, sensing his teammate was in danger, tried to distract the Victreebel while Kyoshi crept up on it. "Look at me! Your mom was a weed! Blah, I hate plants!" The Mightyena did a little dance, while hopping on one foot and sticking out his tongue. Ellen also tried to help.

"I've got candy!" she called to the Victreebel, doing jumping jacks. The plant paid her no notice and continued to concentrate on Charles.

"Oh! I want candy! Gimme, gimme!" yelled Feolan, stopping to look at Ellen.

"Feolan watch out," she yelled, pointing behind him. The Mightyena was grabbed by Victreebel's other vine and was now turning red. Kyoshi jumped on Charles' vine and began cutting and scratching the vine away until it broke off. Charles scrambled away, as the Victreebel shrieked with pain.

"Whoohoo!" jeered Ellen, as Feolan bit the plant. The Victreebel screeched and fell down, while Erika returned it to its Pokéball, twitching a little bit. Ellen could see that a large vain was bulging out of her forehead, and her hand was bone white.

"Go! VILEPLUME!" she practically roared, chucking a Pokéball unto the floor. A large, er… thing appeared on the ground. What was it called? Oh yeah, Vileplume. Looked more like a blob of purple gunk with a huge red blood clot on its head.

"Compared to that Victreebel, this think will be a piece o' cake!" laughed Feolan, jumping on the red flower like a trampoline; while Vileplume looked mildly annoyed.

"I SPEAK FOR THE TREES!" she shouted randomly, before flinging Feolan off her head, and running around in circles. "THE TREES SAY TO DESTROY THEM!" the Vileplume yelled, pointing at the four travelers. She ran up to Ellen and hit her foot, which left a small dent in the shoelace.

"Is this even legal?" asked Ellen to Erika, pointing to the Vileplume, now trying to kick her.

I believe now's the time you a bit of Erika's past. Erika was not the quiet, flower arranging person she is now. Oh no. Before becoming a gym leader, she had horrible anger management problems. Then she became gym leader and focused her anger into battling. So, it pretty much worked out.

Except for one thing:

She never counted on meeting Ellen.

Erika suddenly turned beet red, her hair flying out of place. She jerked her index finger at her opponent and screamed, "_OF COURSE IT'S LEGAL! DO YOU KNOW WHY IT'S LEGAL? BECAUSE I'M A GYM LEADER, THAT'S WHY_!"

"Hey Ellen, I killed the Vileplume!" yelled Charles excitedly, showing Ellen the blob sitting dazed on the floor. Erika turned and saw the Vileplume, while Charles continued to yak about his almighty skills.

The flower arranger's fingers twitched nastily as she recalled her Pokémon, and the Anti-Trainer demanded the badge from her.

"_FINE_!" she screeched, slamming the small trinket into the girl's hand. "THERE'S YOUR BADGE. NOW GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

The group quickly exited the Gym and all breathed a sigh of relief. Ellen checked her watch and then said, "Hey…we've beaten the Gym…we stayed a night at a hotel…the Game Corner is probably open by now. Let's go check!"

"_Yes_," hissed Charles, pumping his fist in the air. "Now that we earned a few bucks, we can actually do something fun for once!"

And they walked away.

* * *

Hahahaha! Short chapter, (sort of!) Bye-bye!


	15. Games of Luck

Ha. Fifteenth chapter! Uh… All I have to say. Chapter 15, I chose you! Quickly, write attack! ...Oops. Guess that's my queue.

P.S.S- **I'll not be here for 2 weeks! Ahhhh! See ya in 2 weeks. EVEN MORE X-TREME VACATIONING!**

* * *

Fiery Sapphire 15

"Come on…jackpot…jackpot…jackpot…" murmured Ellen, cranking a huge lever connected to a slot machine. The group was in the Celadon City Game Corner, 'the most happening place ever,' as described by very popular and highly prestigious _Metropolitan_ magazine.

The Game Corner was actually quite seedy, despite popular belief. The carpets were a dusty red color; the walls held cheap, bright wallpaper pattern of some sorts.

As the Anti-Trainer cranked the lever one final time, the symbols whizzed around, turning the three sevens into huge, red R's. Ellen slammed her fist on the machine and poked her head over to the other slot next to her. "How's everyone else's luck?" she asked Feolan.

He rolled his eyes. Things weren't going so well. "I think Charles is broke," he said dully, "and Kyoshi one a lifetime supply of Meowth food. I'm…" Feolan cranked the machine to see the final symbol. "THIS MACHINE IS RIGGED!" screeched the Mightyena, slamming his fists on it.

"Bankrupt?" Charles asked, finishing Feolan's sentence before the outbreak. Kyoshi didn't know what to do with the Meowth food, so she mailed it back to her hometown. "Well," the Charmeleon continued, "I'm going to take my _winnings_ up to cash them in." He meekly held up two coins as the rest of the group suppressed chuckles.

"Yeah, come on, guys. Apparently, we don't have any luck." Ellen shrugged. "Now come on, let's go cash our stuff in. HEY, YO!" the girl barked at the sickly man who had kicked them out before and he quietly walked over to them.

"Er...anything I can do for you, miss?"

"Hell yeah. I wanna trade these suckers in for cash." She held up the four coins.

"Oh, we can't do that," the man stuttered, pushing the coins back at her. "It's our policy. If you look there..." he pointed to a poster on the opposite wall, "you'll see a full list of Rules and Regulations."

"Rules and Regulations?" yelled Ellen, getting angrier by the second. She marched over to a huge poster on the wall, pushing a small man out of the way. "I'll give you rules and regulations!" she cried, and kicked the poster.

The paper immediately ripped through, and the girl gasped with surprise as she tumbled through the poster, dragging her Pokemon behind her.

The sickly man looked down the hole,

His eyes grew wide,

He sighed,

And then smiled.

Then the Elite Grunt proceeded to find a new poster to cover up that nasty hole in the wall. Oh, kids these days...

OoO

Meanwhile, our heroes where falling down a huge set of stairs.

"Ellen! This (SLAM!) really (SLAM!) hurts (SLAM!) a lot! (SLAM!)," screeched Charles, while being rudely interrupted by slams. The stairs continued for awhile before Ellen; with a disgruntled 'umph!' finally landed.

They looked around.

The room was huge, smaller hallways interlocking with the sides. It had a high, white ceiling and white walls, accompanied by a very lounge-like state. Expensive furniture was prominent, and coffee was a must.

Feolan slowly stood up and brushed himself off. He glanced around and finally let off a bark of laughter. "What kind of a place is _this_? What, are we in some...like, club or somethin'? I mean, we got the whole freakin' nine yards here."

Suddenly a woman turned up behind them and swiftly stood in front of Ellen, eyeing her with large suspicion. The woman glanced up at her with brown eyes, as coffee brown as her skin. "No one is allowed in here except for Rockets," she said finally, snapping her gum. She frowned at Ellen and tugged on the strap of her fitted leather camisole. A small, red R was placed right above the hip. "Either you're some girl who fell down here, or you're some Rocket who seriously has some fashion issues."

The gum-smacking, hip-wiggling Rocket Grunt caught her by surprise. "Uh...yeah, I suck at fashion," Ellen muttered, slowly catching onto her situation. She somehow stumbled her way into a Team Rocket Base. Shit! "I...uh...forgot my uniform today. You know..." she giggled nervously. "Clumsy me...!"

The Grunt snorted at her. "Honey, you can't lie to a Team Rocket member. And you're _way_ too wigged-out to be a Rocket. Please. Jeans and a Tee-Shirt? Sneakers? A frigging backpack?" As she said these, she worked the gum in her mouth and finally spat it on the ground. "Augh. Mint. I hate mint gum. Anyway sweets, you need style to be a Rocketer. Fashion. Poise. A figure. Giovanni likes his girls, you know."

Ellen instantly snapped on. "Giovanni? Who the hell is Giovanni? I've never-"

"Oopsie! I mean, _Boss_ likes his girls." She giggled softly. "Well girl, it looks like you're a trainer, but I'm gonna let you off this time." Before Ellen could answer, she added, "girl-to-girl secret, okay? You look like you'd be a good edition to the Team, so I'm gonna let you think about it for a while. I mean, if I killed you, then you might _never_ join. And besides, none of the Grunts are here except me. They're all at Sliph Co.! Well, see ya!" She let our a rip-roaring laugh and clobbered down a hallway in her stiletto heels, waving like crazy.

"I'm officially scared," Charles said dully. "This random Grunt just went up to us and started a lovely conversation about the glamorous ethnics of Team Rocket."

"At least she didn't maim us or something," Feolan contradicted. "Now _that_ would suck."

The Charmeleon rolled his eyes. "Duh. Anyway, th-" he stopped and looked around for a second. "Wait. Where's Kyoshi?"

"KYOSHI!" Feolan barked, pointing at the Meowth. Kyoshi was scampering down one of the hallways. "What the hell is wrong with that cat?" The group followed after her as she drove deeper and deeper into the empty Team Rocket Base, when the Meowth finally skidded to a halt, claws raking across the floor as she yowl crazily.

Kyoshi came to a stop when she smashing into a pair of legs-

Clad in a gold jumpsuit.

"Holy shit!" screamed Ellen, once she saw the figure. She stopped dead in front of it, causing all of the Pokemon to crash behind her. "Who the hell are _you_?"

"Aww…" cooed the figure, lowering his huge, gold-framed glasses. He grinned obnoxiously. Overall, the man was heavily obnoxious, but what bothered the group most about him was his hair, which was a huge, multicolored afro. "Look at this _darling_ infant, come to destroy Team Rocket's Game corner! How cute!"

"Yeah, well your face isn't gonna be cute when I done with you," Feolan barked, curling his paw into a fist and shaking it at him. He bared his teeth. "Actually, you're not gonna even _have_ a face!"

"Who are you anyway? Dude, it's not the 60's. Get with it!" exclaimed Ellen.

From beneath his huge glasses, the man rolled his eyes. "The name is Mirror B.! I just got over here from Team Snagum. Joined Team Rocket, just for kicks, you know? They pay better." Mirror B. explained, snapping his fingers in a Z formation. "But guess what? Since I'm in charge of this plan, I get to destroy you! Come on, let's the music spin!" Suddenly, upbeat Spanish music began to play as a Ludicolo emerged from a Pokéball.

"¡Hola¡Deje la vuelta de la música¡Tengo gusto de bailar mucho, y también tengo gusto de las drogas y de la cerveza! Ése es porqué sonrío toda la hora. ¡No es eso que interesa¿Usted sabe qué más¡Tengo gusto de comer los palillos de la mantequilla!" it blabbed in Spanish, while firing water at Charles.

"Vous morceau de merde!" The Charmeleon cursed at Ludicolo, while setting him on fire. The strange Spanish plant muttered something about dieing, and fainted.

"That's not cool man! Not cool at all!" Mirror B. threw another Ludicolo out, and a next one, and a next one.

"Ellen, we can't hold 'em off forever," Feolan hissed at her, nimbly avoiding a Ludicolo. "Help us out. Strike a deal with Mirror B. or something!"

"Really?"

"Yeah. Hey…you know how to dance?" he asked.

Ellen snorted and smiled haughtily. "Hell yeah."

"Then howsabout a dancing contest?"

"HEY! WHAT'RE YOU TALKING BOUT OVER THERE, DISCO CHICKY?" Mirror B. called to them. "When were still young, sister."

"Yo Mirror B.! I challenge you to a dancing contest," she fired back at him. "If I win, you leave the Rocket Game Corner! If you win, I have to leave the Game Corner. All right?" Ellen yelled, raising an eyebrow and sneering. "Unless you're a baby."

The disco man returned her sneer. "You can't match my disco moves, girlfriend!" Mirror B. did the Hustle, while his Pokémon cheered for him. Then, Ellen spun around on the floor, break-dance style, and ended in a pose.

"Do your thang, Ellen!" cheered Feolan, jumping on a Ludicolo's head.

"Did you say _thang_?" asked Charles, looking at Feolan. Anyways, Mirror B. then moved into Cabbage-Patch mode, and then ended his turn with the Charlie Brown. The Anti-Trainer was dumbfounded. But then, she remembered another move.She was popping and locking, then, did a Backspin to finish her move. Mirror B. was obviously running out of dances, and he preformed the Macarena.

"Want some popcorn, Meowth?" asked a Ludicolo, handing Kyoshi a bag of popcorn. Charles and Feolan grabbed a handful and continued watching Mirror B. and Ellen.

Ellen knew the end was near for Mirror B., so she did the most awesome move she had ever tried: The Halos. First, she did a mill to get momentum, then she caught herself in a position with her head on the floor. Then, she quickly kicked, did a mill and caught herself before her head could touch the ground. Finally, she quickly kicked and let go with both hands, finishing the Halo perfectly.

"TA DA!" she yelled, falling over. Feolan, Charles, Kyoshi, and even a Ludicolo applauded. "Thank you, thank you…" she said, bowing and catching the invisible roses thrown to her.

"Girl, you got some funky fresh moves! You win!" Mirror B. yelled, returning his Pokémon. "Let the music spin!" Mirror B. grinned, thanked her for the dancing contest, tossed Ellen a strange looking card, he walked away.

"Wow Ellen! I can't believe you know how to do that! Where did you learn it?" asked Charles, thoroughly surprised. He high-fived Ellen.

"M.E.W Summer Camp! It stands for Malicious Evil Waffles," she replied brightly, before inspecting the card that she was given. "Hmm…It says 'Card Key'. Anyone know what that is?"

Kyoshi simply nodded and grabbed the card from Ellen's hand. She walked over to a large wall and swiped the card in a slot. The wall opened and made a clear path for the four. Everyone was dumbfounded.

"I hate you," Feolan spat at the Meowth, who grinned at him. The four walked in the door to find a perfectly normal room, except for the two Rocket Grunts making-out on a table.

"Oops," Ellen said quietly, and quickly walked away with the three Pokémon. Pretending that never happened, the four of them walked into another room, where a scientist was working, hunched over his work.

"I have found the cure for the common cold!" he yelled, holding up a small vile of blue liquid. Ellen and co. left him to his work. Finally, the group opened a door to find a long, dark hallway.

"Dude, this is really freakin' me out," whispered Feolan, now moving closer to Ellen. "We should go back. We're goin' back."

Charles laughed at Feolan. "You guys are just _babies_. I'm not scared of anything!"

"Yeah right," Feolan growled, starting another heated argument until Ellen whacked them both across the head and stopped at a door in front of them.

The room they entered was softly lit; it seemed like it was some sort of a study. There was an ornate desk in the corner, a large, stuffy red chair in the center, and a large plant and a bookshelf to the side. Scattered around the room were various decorations. Ellen was even hesitant to walk inside. It just looked so...regal.

Feolan has a different idea.

"Anyone there? HELLOOO?" he screamed, trotting into the room with some new-found confidence. He grinned. "This place isn't half bad. I could do this. Oh- what's over there?"

Ellen slowly made her way over to the desk and ran her eyes over the tabletop. A wad of money sat smugly in the corner, and a few office supplies meandered on the desk. A pen, a pack of cigarettes, an empty glass with just a bit of clear colored liquid in the bottom, and a-

Nameplate.

The etched piece of gold caught her eye, and she quietly picked it up. The name shone; familiar.

"Boss Giovanni," she whispered slowly, frowning, and ran her fingers over it.

"Yes?"

The nameplate clattered to the ground, as Ellen let out a cry of surprise and looked up to see a tall, regal man standing across from her, smiling kindly. The pleasant look on his face didn't fit him; it looked strange with his jet black hair, his piecing eyes, the way he held himself standing- as if nothing could penetrate his confidence.

"Why are you here?" He spoke again, this time a question. The smile was unmoved from his face, and his mouth slowly slithered into a grin. "You shouldn't be here."

"I- I'm sorry," Ellen whimpered, stepping back. Something stepped up next to her, and she looked down at all three of her Pokémon, also staring at the man. "We'll leave, I swear!"

"Now, now, now…don't be so frightened." The man, presumably 'Boss Giovanni,' stepped over to her and gently put a hand on her shoulder. "How _did_ you find your way here?"

"I…fell…" the girl whispered, recoiling from his hand. Charles opened his mouth a bit, looked up at Giovanni, and hissed softly. "I was in the Game Corner and I fell. And I wandered around for a bit, and then I-"

"You need a Card Key to enter this room," Giovanni said suddenly, his voice hardening. "Did one just pop up from mid-air?"

Ellen shut her eyes in despair. _Think up something quick_, she thought. "I met a woman in black, Sir," she half-lied, making it seem as if she knew nothing about Team Rocket. "I asked her how to get out, and she gave me this card and told me to go here. There was an exit, she said."

"Really?" he asked in false surprise. "Hmm. How fortunate for you to come upon me! I suppose I haven't properly introduced myself…" he gestured at the fallen nameplate. "As you saw earlier, I am Giovanni, leader of this establishment. Boss, for short."

"I'm Ellen."

Charles suddenly tugged on her jeans with urgency. "Don't tell him anything else," he hissed, not taking his eyes off of the man. His voice quavered with fear. "It's obvious. He's the leader of Team Rocket. Get out of here. NOW."

Giovanni frowned and peered down at the Pokémon. His frown disappeared and was replaced with a smile. "Pokémon! Ah, so young Miss Ellen is a trainer. Delightful."

The girl suddenly grimaced. Why did _everyone_ call her a trainer? She wasn't one! "I'm not a trainer," she said rather nastily, "I'm a-"

A jolt of pain ran up her ankle, and she winced. Feolan had his jaws clamped around her ankle, giving her a glare that said, "DON'T SAY ANYTHING ELSE."

"You're _not_ a trainer?" the Boss asked deeply, furrowing his eyebrows. "Then what else could you be? You were going to say before…" he nodded at Feolan.

Ellen gulped.

_Make up something, idiot_, Kyoshi seemed to say, flattening her ears back.

"I…wasn't going to say anything else," she lied, standing up a bit straighter in an attempt to sound as confident as Giovanni. "I _am_ a trainer."

"Then where is your I.D Card?"

Her heart sunk, and the Anti-Trainer's façade disappeared. "Huh?"

"Your I.D Card. Your Trainer Card. Don't play games with me." His voice turned cold. "Are you a Trainer? Or perhaps you're lying. Did you _accidentally_ fall into this establishment? Or are you lying?"

There was silence for a while, wide-eyed silence, until Giovanni suddenly shook his head and chuckled. "Forgive me. I must be terribly frightening. Am I right…Anti-Trainer?"

"What?" Ellen gasped, staring at him.

"So you admit it!" he said jovially, preoccupied with fixing the collar of his expensive suit. "You admit you are an Anti-Trainer."

She kept her eyes positioned on the floor. What could she say? Admit it and face the consequences? Say no and try to get away? How would she tell her Pokémon her plan? Did Giovanni actually know she was an Anti-Trainer?

Finally, she nodded ever-so-slightly.

"Ah." It was more of a statement than an expression of emotion. Seeing she still had her head down, the Boss waited until Ellen looked up at him. He smiled reassuringly.

And then struck her across the face.

White-hot pain. That's all she felt as she stumbled backwards, backing up against the wall in fright. Her fingers splayed and she clutched the plaster wall with the tips of her gloves as Giovanni advanced on her, a furious glare in his dark eyes.

"Damn you," he hissed, voice trembling. "Goddamn you to hell, Anti-Trainer." From his pocket he produced three Pokéballs, grasping them in his fist.

Kyoshi was instantly at her trainer's side, back arched and taut, fur bristled up. Her pupils dilated, mouth curved in a permanent roar; as Charles and Feolan sidled up beside the two.

The Anti-Trainer's breathing became shallow from fear, and she called out hoarsely, "Who _are_ you?"

The Boss faltered and stared at her, confused. He allowed himself a brief second to think. "Why, that's an odd question for an Anti-Trainer. I thought you all knew about _me_. Giovanni. Boss of Team Rocket. Enemy of the Anti-Trainers. Just from guessing, I can tell that you're a replacement for that other one. The boy."

"Yes," she said briskly, mustering up confidence. "Fiery Sapphire. The one and only. And…I challenge you to a Pokémon battle."

She smiled, pleased with herself. Surely this was the way to duel with the Boss of Team Rocket, most likely a civilized, pompous man who didn't really enjoy mindless killing.

And she heard a laugh.

It wasn't mirthful; it was a cold, hard bark of laughter, Giovanni glancing at her askance. "Yes…shall we?" Immediately he threw down the Pokéballs, and what emerged was a trio of horrific beasts. The Rhydon blinked sleepily as if it had not been called out for sometime, and it looked around a bit. It locked eyes with the Nidoqueen and Nidoking, and acknowledged their presence. Its eyes finally rested on Ellen, and it growled softly.

"The name of the game is this," Giovanni continued, sauntering towards the Anti-Trainer. "It's a different type of Pokémon battle. I'd like to call it: Sudden Death." He put his hands behind his back and stared up at his Pokémon. "Well, _Fiery_ Sapphire, you plucky young Anti-Trainer you, the rules consist of my Pokémon destroying you or devouring you. Any questions?

Feolan whimpered.

"No? Oh wait; one more thing. _I_ also accompany my Pokémon in this game."

"What's…what's that supposed to mean?" she asked in a whisper, moving away from the crazed leader.

"Have you ever snapped someone's neck, Fiery Sapphire?" He cocked his head at her. "I know I have."

And with the snap of its master's fingers, the Rhydon opened its mouth and roared.

The battle had begun.

The Nidoqueen came charging at Ellen, claws scraping against the ground as it threw herself at the girl. Feolan grabbed her arm and yanked her out of the way as the rest of the Pokémon scattered across the room. Charles eyed Giovanni, who was casually following his Pokémon around, and unsheathed his claws.

The Charmeleon's pupils dilated as he saw his target. His upper lip curled over his sharp little teeth, and he snarled. Giovanni stood a little ways in front of him, back turned; watching as Feolan sunk his teeth into the Nidoking's arm and was sent skidding across the floor as the Pokémon shook him off. If Charles could sneak up behind him…his lip twitched and he uttered another snarl. The dragon in him was coming out. The Boss's throat was a perfect target. Instant death.

_The name of the game is THIS, Giovanni_, Charles thought, and bounded forward.

While this was happening, Ellen had succeeded in evading the Nidoqueen and actually making the Nidoking faint.

Actually, Kyoshi was responsible for the defeat of the Nidoking. The Physic had clawed her way into the beast's mind and was pummeling it with such confusion that the Pokémon couldn't take it and crashed to the ground, its mind probably damaged long-term. The Meowth shrugged as the Nidoking fell. If Giovanni wanted to play unfair, then she would too.

The gigantic Rhydon still proved as a threat. The Pokémon hadn't moved much, but was tracking her every move with its huge eyes, flicking its gaze between Ellen and her Pokémon. It opened it mouth, probably to yawn, but was suddenly interrupted by something.

A scream. A scream from Giovanni.

Ellen and Feolan looked at each other, wide-eyed, and turned to the direction of the commotion. Even the Nidoqueen stopped moving and sniffed the air, turning.

Charles was on the ground, squirming violently. Little flames leapt from his mouth, and he whirled his arms around, but the Boss had firmly planted a foot on his stomach. The man was breathing heavily, and three lines of red ran down from his jaw to his shoulder. The blood trickled to the floor, where it lay pooling against the burgundy carpet.

"Rhydon," Giovanni commanded suddenly, and the Rhydon snapped to attention. The man jerked his head down at the struggling Charles and removed his foot from the Charmeleon and stepped back. "Slash. Now."

"CHARLES!" Ellen screamed, and blindly ran forward. She meant to grab him and whisk him away from the attack, but, something went wrong. As the girl was running forward, the Rhydon turned to her instead and thrashed out its huge claw.

The claws ripped through her back, scraping, tearing through the skin and between the spine. Her scream was desperate, and as the Rhydon finished its attack and recoiled the scream reduced to hysterical sobs; the girl curled on the ground, arms curled around her skins and head resting on her knees. Everything was blurry, so blurry…

Ellen's head was pounding, and through the murky sense of pain Giovanni comment something to the effect of, "Give in, you bitch. Die. Die for God's sake. You should be dead by now."

"BASTARD!" she screamed at him, and returned to sobbing.

"_THIS IS WHY THE ANTI-TRAINERS HAVE DISAPEARED_!" he roared back, but didn't move. "_YOU'RE TOO AGGRESSIVE! TOO STUBORN! TOO REBELLIOUS! THAT WAS YOUR DOWNFALL!_"

By now Ellen was dizzy from so much blood loss, and from the looks of his pale, shaken face Giovanni was too. The man looked around for his desk to lean on, but found that it had been destroyed in the various commotion around. His hands were shaking, and he stumbled over to the wall, which he leaned against.

And then something strange happened. He recalled all his Pokémon, and he slowly shook his head. "Lucky," he whispered hoarsely. "That's the trouble with Anti-Trainers. All luck and no skill."

Giovanni's tactics of survival were strange. He would of gladly killed Ellen on the spot, but in the midst of it he would probably collapse from fatigue and blood-loss, leaving himself venerable to all attacks. And after that Charmeleon…

"All luck and no skill," he said again.

Ellen didn't really care what the man said. But of course, as any well-respecting, injured Anti-Trainer would do, she calmly held up her middle finger at him.

Giovanni, Boss of Team Rocket, wrenched open the office door with the last of his remaining strength and looked over his shoulder, wincing at the pain in his neck. "I doubt this will be the last time we meet, though. And next time…you will _beg_ for your life."

"Shut up," she whimpered, little dots of tears at the corners of her eyes.

He made a tsk-tsk sound. "Oh well. You don't believe me. Well-"

"SHUT _UP_!" Ellen sat up and stared at the place the Boss had been standing at minutes before.

But he was gone.

Kyoshi was the first to come to her, nervously placing her paws on her forearm and peering down at her with a dead-serious expression. The Anti-Trainer stared back at her, and she uttered a strained laugh. The Meowth's expression was so different from what most people thought of Meowths. Cute, fluffy kittens that little trainer girls carried around with them.

Heh.

Ellen smiled a bit. I guess people could say that _she_ was a lot different from what most people thought of trainers. Or Anti-Trainers, for that matter.

Yeah.

Definitely.

Fiery Sapphire was different.

OoO

The group got their bearings very rapidly, as Ellen's strength was diminishing fast, and traveled over to the Pokémon Mansion where the owner of the mansion; a frail old woman, huffed and worried over the girl's injuries.

"Oh dear, dear, dear!" the woman cried. "You should _never_ go out in the tall grass without your Pokémon, dear! Oh God no!"

Okay, so Ellen told a little fib.

But that was allowed when you were an Anti-Trainer.

Speaking of Anti-Trainers, as Fiery Sapphire was curled up in a chair, her Pokémon also moping around and discussing how much had happened in the past four hours, Ellen sent a message to the Anti-Trainers.

_Antis- _

_Went to Game Corner. There was this secret hideout. Giovanni was there. Hurt pretty bad. My back hurts. Why didn't you guys tell me how freakin' dangerous it was?_

-_Fiery Sapphire, over and out. _

And the girl threw her cell phone aside, stifled a yawn and went to sleep.

* * *

Face it. My story kicks ass.


	16. The Moonlight Escapade

I lied! I'm putting out onemore chapter before vacationing! Fooled you, didn't I? Well, on with it! This is basically a filler chapter, but it's still somewhat important. I don't know why, but this chapter is going to concentrate on Feolan! Ha-ha! Blah, I don't have anything to say, I'm just trying to make the chapter longer, and I'm a succeeding incredibly well. I'll stop.

**This is truthfully the chapter before the two week break. Sob, sob.**

* * *

Fiery Sapphire 16

Ellen couldn't sleep. No, not because of fear, or the fact that she was almost impaled by a Rhydon horn, but because of pain. When she lay down, her back hurt. When she lay on her side, her arm hurt. When she laid on her front, she remembered how she got kicked, and if she lay a little longer it would hurt like hell. So what if she had thirty band-aids on? They just stopped the bleeding, plus she only packed the small kind. So she sat up and looked around the room that an old lady had graciously given her. Kyoshi was on the carpet, and Charles had fallen asleep in a chair, still holding the mug of spiked tea he had stolen from the lady. Ellen looked around to spot Feolan, but he was no where to be seen. **"Gonna kill you!"** a voice whispered in her ear. Ellen jumped as the familiar annoying voice filled the room with laughter.

"**Feolan!"** Ellen shrieked angrily, punching him with great force. Kyoshi turned on a light and wearily blinked her eyes. Charles mumbled utter nonsense before getting up and putting the cup of tea on a coffee table. **"It's one frickin' thirty in the morning! Why the hell are you awake?"** Ellen said, pulling out a large band-aid from her backpack and sticking it on her arm.

"**Sorry!"** Feolan said sarcastically**. "I prefer sleep in the daytime, so I stay up! Duh, I'm a dark Pokémon, not an insomniac, dumbass!"** Charles gave a comical grunt and went back to sleep.

"**Well if you're going to stay up so late, do something helpful!"** Ellen pulled out a map and examined it. Then, she quickly wrote down something on a piece of paper and gave it to Feolan. **"Hey! Why don't you go down to Sliph Co. and get that Sliph Scope for me. They're open twenty four seven, so just show the receptionist the note. That'll save time, and all we have to do is beat the Physic Gym there. Piece of cake, with you being a Dark!"** Feolan grinned at his opportunity to walk around, and he happily set off.

The moonlight illuminated Feolan's snowy fur as he bounded through the silent town. Feolan saw that the Department store had closed down for the night, and the Game Corner had a sign up that said it was no longer in operation. After saying hello to a few Meowth walking around, Feolan decided it was time to head over to Saffron.

He quietly entered the guard post, praying the guy would be to stupid to notice, or asleep. Luck was on his side, and the guard was snoring loudly. Feolan heard a growl, and he turned to look, but nothing was there. He managed to whisper **"Hello?"** Nothing responded, and Feolan decided to continue on quickly, when a large doglike creature jumped out at him. He yelped and began to run, when he heard a very lovely and familiar voice behind him.

"**Feolan!"** it sang. He turned around to find a shiny Mightyena looking at him apologetically.

"**Adora!"** Feolan crowed happily. The guard stirred for a bit, so Feolan toned down. He walked up to her and happily noted mentally that he was finally tall enough to see face to face. **"Why are you here?"** Feolan asked.

"**Oh…"** replied Adora, nodding toward the guard. **"This is my owner. I usually stay here a lot, but on occasions I get to attend parties with him." **Adora continued. **"Sorry I jumped out at you. You look and sound so different since you evolved! If anyone tries to pass at night, I'm obliged to protect the post. Why are you here?"**

"**I'm going to get a Sliph Scope for Ellen. Wanna come with me?"** Feolan asked hopefully, waving the note in the air.

Adora grinned and nodded**. "I need to be back by morning though, or my owner will die worrying."** She joked. The two happily bounded off, and ran up to the Sliph Co. Building.

"**Wait a second!"** said Feolan, grinning. "This isn't a necessity, let's explore the town for a bit!" Adora agreed, and the two trotted off to a house. The lights were on, and Feolan entered, Adora close behind. A bald man was sitting on a bamboo mat in the middle of the floor, meditating. The candle flickered as Feolan walked up to the guy and barked to Adora, **"Dare me to touch him?"** The man opened one eye as Adora giggled and nodded.

He glared sternly at Feolan, who quickly drew his paw back and sat a few feet away. **"I saw that I would be disturbed by two Mightyena, and I saw I would give this to you, Feolan."** The man handed a TM to him, Feolan took it wearily, and handed it to Adora for the time being." The Physic sighed and closed his eyes. When the two thought they should leave, the Physic opened his eyes again and said knowingly, **"Feolan, I would give that to Kyoshi. It would greatly help you on your travels, and she would love to increase her mind power."**

Adora and Feolan exchanged glances and walked out slowly. The man closed his eyes again and continued meditating. As they were walking, Adora made a very cheesy joke about him. **"Mr. Feolan, there is no spoon! There is no spoon? Now try to bend it! But there is no spoon! Just shut up and leave!" **The two jokedand wondered about him until they reached Sliph Co, an immense glass building with all it's lights on.

"**After you."** Feolan offered, holding the door open as Adora trotted through. She thanked him, and they looked around the main office. **"That's weird. No one's here, and Ellen said it was open all the time." **Feolan jumped up on the front desk and sniffed around. **"Hey, there no Sliph Scopes back here! What a rip off!"**

"**Feolan!"** Adora called. Feolan turned around to find Adora on the other side of the room, pointing at a set of stairs**. "Maybe there are some upstairs! Let's go!"** Feolan nodded and romped over to Adora. The two climbed the stairs, talking and laughing like old friends. When they got to the second floor, they found themselves on a large floor of rooms and doors.

"**Let's check in that room."** Feolan pointed to an open room and walked over, with Adora following. He peeked into the room to see a small man in a lab coat typing at a computer. **"Adora, I think I found someone."** Feolan said, Adora walking up beside him.

The man, startled by the two Mightyena, peered threw his glasses at them and smiled. Then, the scientist took out from his pocket a tranquilizer gun. He aimed it at the two and said, **"Now you two rare Mightyena, hold very still." **Feolan's pupils dilated and he dashed to the scientist, who dropped his gun and screamed. Feolan tore his lab coat and barked furiously at him, while Adora arched her back, her fur bristling and growled. Two Grunts came running to the room to see what the commotion was about, and were attacked by Adora. Feolan then left scientist who was scared out of his wits, and concentrated on the female half of the Grunt duo. Feolan uttered a simple growl, which sent the Grunt screaming.

Adora knew if anyone heard that scream, more would be coming. Adora yelled to Feolan, **"Shit! We need to get out of here!"** Feolan nodded, and the two bolted at the same time, knocking down the two Rocket Grunts and running down the stairs. Feolan and Adora flew down the stairs as the two Grunts lopped after them. Feolan slid on the newly waxed floor of the lobby as Adora gained speed and flew out the door, with the other Mightyena close behind. The streets were now illuminated by a soft light as the two Pokémon ran into the guard post. **"You need to go."** Adora said quickly, leading Feolan out the door.

"**But who will protect you when I'm not here?"** Feolan realized he said that, and blushed. Adora smiled, nodded to her the guard, and gave back the TM.

"**I'll wake him up, he'll take care of them. Bye Feolan!"** Adora quickly pecked him on the cheek, as the door leading to Saffron opened. Feolan waved bye, and ran out the door leading to Celadon. As Feolan ran through the streets once again, he thought he heard Adora barking and a man yelling harshly. He entered the Celadon Mansion and padded quietly to Ellen's room. The three were asleep, and as Feolan lay down, he glanced at the clock. 3:56, he had been gone almost 3 hours.

"**_Not a bad date. Not a bad date at all."_ **Feolan thought, and hefell into a deep sleep.

* * *

Goodbye, suckas! 


	17. Silph Part One: Masqueraid

Whoot! Fiery Sapphire Special! I don't know how many parts this will contain, but it'll sure be fun!

P.S- I don't own Wegmans grocery store, Pokémon or Kleenex tissues, but I do own all my characters.

P.P.S- Apologies to all who have been waiting for a long time, and for once, I don't bold dialouge. (Masquerade is supposed to be spelled wrong, duh.)

* * *

Fiery Sapphire

Rocket Break-in Part 1-

Masque-raid

"Rockets!" spat Feolan, throwing _The Morning Ooze_, a Celadon newspaper, on the floor. The others crowded around a black and white picture of the Silph Co. building; underneath the picture was the headline saying: _Spit Co. under Mysterious Management for it's Fifth Year!_ The group had been staying in the hotel for two weeks now, after the elderly woman running it had found pity for the destroyed Ellen and allowed her to stay without charge. Feeling slightly scared, depressed, and worried, the girl had turned off her cell phone. Until now, that is.

"Spit Co.?" asked Charles, raising his non-existent eyebrows. "How can someone misspell Silph Co.? Anyone to do that is total idiot!"

Feolan blushed and decided to more on to another topic. Picking up the newspaper, he scanned the back page to see odd symbols. "Hey, Charles! These look weird. What do they say?"

Charles stared at them. "They're horoscopes, I believe." The Mightyena winked at him, and the Chameleon sighed, "Tauros'. Kyoshi shuttered at the mention; Charles apologized productively. "Hmm…I will make a new and loyal friend in the near future."

"Bull," Ellen snorted. "We're going to be in Silph Co."

Kyoshi slunk up to her, curious, and rubbed her head against her shoulder. Feolan frowned. "You mean…you're ready to go?"

The girl shrugged. "I…I can't stay here all my life. I need to go on sometime."

Charles, Feolan, and Kyoshi looked at each other. "That's very noble of you," the dragon said astutely, just as the phone rang.

The three Pokémon all jumped up, startled. "Sorry guys," Ellen said, pulling out the little phone-device she had gotten from Gold, only to have it snatched away by Feolan. "_Wha_—Feolan, give it!"

He clicked it on and began speaking into it, unaware that they had no means of understanding him. "Hey, what's up, friends and friends alike? How ya doing? We're reading horoscopes, and Charles is going to meet a new friend in the near fut—" Ellen whisked it away from him, grumbling angrily.

"_Stupid_…Hey! Sorry guys. So…I guess you got my message."

"Two weeks ago," Miguel yawned, frowning. His glasses were slightly askew, a tired expression on his face. The other Anti-Trainers had also managed to fit on-screen, although slightly crowded. "We thought Giovanni had found you again and done you in."

"Why did you turn your phone off?" Samara demanded hotly.

"Yeah! You had us worried _sick_! We…we…" Russell sputtered madly, "we couldn't take it!"

"Thanks, mom," Ellen said dryly. Feolan snickered. "And I guess you should start lecturing me about…uh…how _dangerous_ Team Rocket is?" Her face turned grave. Feolan ceased in his merriment.

Russell's face matched her own, although there was slight guilt to his. "I…oh, shit, you're _right_, I'll give you that. We're so sorry, Ellen—Fiery Sapphire—whatever. We should have told you more. It's just…" he trailed off, ashamed.

"It's just, we didn't want you to leave when you became an Anti-Trainer," Marylyn finished helpfully, drunk enough not to care.

Russell nodded. "Right."

"Are…you all right?" Samara asked timidly, and added, "Being that you went up against the Boss of Team Rocket, I suppose."

The youngest Anti-Trainer sighed, rubbing the tender scars on her back. She looked away for a moment before deciding to say, "Yeah, I'm good…no, the Pokémon are good, too…yeah, my back still hurts…yeah, he was brutal…listen, I really don't wanna talk about this any more…"

"Really?" asked Russell, surprised.

Ellen frowned. "Uh…_yeah_? Why?"

"Oh, well, it's just that Anti-Trainers of the past, boy, they were maniacs when it came to stories. Showing a bullet wound from Giovanni's gun was like showing off a new car," he explained proudly. Miguel and Samara groaned, not in the mood for nostalgia from the older members of the group.

"Anti-Trainers of the past?" Ellen asked curiously.

"Sure. We're just a small group now, but about twenty, fifteen years ago, we were a huge organization. Had everything under control, we did. We and Team Rocket were equally matched, going at each other like armies. But…they were stronger than us…and I guess we sort of died off. Like animals."

"Animals?"

"That's what Giovanni thought of us," he responded bitterly, forehead creasing. "Just animals. Pokémon. Meant to be hunted down and shot. Or killed anyway else he liked."

There was a pause from the other end of the line.

"Horrible," mumbled Charles, now very serious. Feolan nodded slightly, away with his careless personality. Kyoshi began washing herself, licking her paw.

In an attempt to change the subject, Samara asked, "So where are you going now?

"Silph Co, Saffron City," Ellen said. "Maybe in two, three days. It's a really big building—I mean, seriously. And it's all metal, and all the tinted glass is nice and shiny and—"

"Yes," she interrupted kindly, "but you do know that Silph Co. is very dangerous, right? This was the one we discussed with you in the Anti-Trainer base. We failed to bring Team Rocket from it…"

"You need back-up for this mission," Russell snapped. "I'm not taking any chances with a fifteen year-old teenager."

"Seventeen," lied Ellen quietly, "and if I won in the Game Corner, than why can't I go to Silph Co. alone?"

"Because," Russell snapped angrily, "it's very dangerous, and I can't have your death on my conscious for the rest of my life! It would be too hard!"

"What makes you think I'll die?" the girl challenged, growing irritated. "Huh?"

"I'm not saying you're _going_ to die if you go alone, I'm just saying that—"

"Oh! So I'm _not_ gonna die, huh?"

"Ellen…" Charles warned quietly. "I would feel more comfortable if they went with us…"

"_WOULD YOU LET ME FINISH_?" Russell howled suddenly, his voice coming out as an angry buzz on the phone speakers. His voice grew quiet again. "You are fifteen. We are adults. You are new. We are old. If we were to ever get into a situation in which you were in danger, we would defend you."

Ellen frowned, confused. But…why would they want to risk their lives for _her_, of all people? "But…_why_?"

"It's simple," Marylyn explained. "If any of us had to lose our lives to Grunts or Executives or Giovanni, we would feel better if it was one of us and not you. Simply stated, we're going to die sooner, anyway. You've still got a whole life in front of you."

"But…I don't want you guys to _die_!" Ellen shouted, her face a picture of horror. "Why would I want that?

Russell sighed, rubbing his temples. The girl could be so feeble-minded…and annoying. But still, he felt that, in an odd, fatherly way, he was responsible for keeping her safe. "It's not what you want, Ellen. It's what is _logical_—"

"Fine then! I'm not goin'! _Fuck logic_!" she shrieked, disconnecting the phone and turning it off. She quickly stood up, shaking her head and collecting her things scattered around the hotel room. "Can't believe it," she mumbled to herself absentmindedly. "Don't want them to die…don't want them to die…"

"Ellen..." Feolan said slowly, "Um…was that a good idea?"

"Who cares?" Ellen snorted, emitting a bark of dark laughter. Her voice softened. "I don't want them to die. Then…then…what would we do?"

Charles furrowed his brow. "I suppose you're right, Ellen…and if they did die, Giovanni could still go after you. After all, Russell did say that Giovanni had a penchant for hunting Anti-Trainers down." Feolan and Kyoshi came to sit beside the dragon; Charles cast a quick glance at Kyoshi, heart fluttering as he absorbed her soft, feline features and gentle eyes. "So—so are we leaving _now_?"

"What does it look like? I lied. Let's go." the young Anti-Trainer asked dully, pulling her backpack on her shoulder. She hoped her fear would subside as soon as they got to the building. Shrugging, the Pokémon followed.

OoO

The Grunt pulled his black cap back and stared at Ellen, blinking. She was strange, that was true—but she didn't look like a threat to him. How could someone like _her_ be a threat? And her Pokémon looked weak, he could knock them out if need be. "So…what makes you so keen to think that I'll let you in?" Saffron's sky was a dull shade of gray as a light rain sprinkled the empty city. "You know this is a private business management, right? You have to work here to be allowed in."

"Oh," Ellen said rather shakily and blankly, emotionless. "I mean, that's the reason I came. My friend was looking for some work." The Pokémon stared at her, astounded. Ellen had no idea what brought her to say this, but it seemed to work—the Grunt nodded thoughtfully.

"Oh, really? In that case, he—"

"She."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. _She_ needs to go through the administration process if she wants a high-paying job. Have her come back here later."

"Wait, no." The girl shook her head. "She doesn't want high-paying. She just wants to be a Grunt. She's got a pretty bad background, so…" she trailed off, gesturing to allow the Grunt to understand that it was unmentionable.

"I see, I see. Still, you should bring her back here later so we can talk." He smiled cheerfully, shaking her hand. "We always need another Grunt. Now, her name…?"

Ellen blinked, spurting randomly, "Jennifer. Jennifer Ad…Aideen. Jennifer Aideen."

"Brilliant," Charles muttered sardonically to Kyoshi. The Meowth rolled her eyes.

"Jennifer? Very nice. Now, we can't stand around here all day. The others will get suspicious." Ellen agreed wholeheartedly, not wanting to be caught even before she was in Silph Co. Or be caught at all, for that matter. She muttered thank yous, promising her friend would come very soon—and, of course, she thought to herself, Jennifer would be as different and as beauty-obsessed as one could be. Well…she would try, at least. But where to go in order to turn herself into Jennifer?

OoO

"You mean, you're going to take on another appearance and personality in order to infiltrate Silph Co?" Charles asked skeptically. Ellen nodded; the dragon exhaled noisily and consumed some of his smoothie. "Ellen…Ellen…Ellen…that's a risky plan." He looked at her. "Not to mention expensive."

"I know," she said, wincing slightly. The group had seated themselves in the local smoothie bar, the only public area that seemed populated. Ellen, feeling the need to repay her Pokémon for the Celadon Game Corner, had treated them to a round of smoothies. "But…I still have…_um_…twenty Pokédollars left, and maybe that'll be enough for some make-up and…" she trailed off, not knowing what else went into the wardrobe of a fashion concerned individual. "What else?"

Feolan frowned at her. "Come on, Ellen! Even _I_ know this. If you really want to look different, than you'll need hair dye, new clothing, nail polish, colored contacts, weight gain, plastic surgery—"

"_What_?" the girl gasped, astounded. "I'm not getting a nose job or somethin' just for Team Rocket!" Several people stared at her, raising their eyebrows. What an odd girl. She lowered her voice considerably, leaning in closer to their table. The Pokémon followed suite. "I mean, that's the only way we can get in now, I'm guessing. I already told the Grunt that 'Jennifer' was gonna come soon, and we can't climb through a window or anything. I'm thinkin', yuh know those big department stores with all the expensive dresses and suits and fancy hats and—"

Kyoshi mewed shrilly, urging her on.

"Yeah, well, they probably sell make-up, too. So…if I could just find a department store like that, check it out first, and maybe earn some more money, I could get stuff to fix myself up."

"Soo…the only place I know is the Celadon Department Store," Feolan said.

"Me too," Charles sighed.

The young Anti-Trainer shook her head disbelievingly before pushing back her chair and looking around the smoothie bar, her eyes lingering on a youngish woman wearing small scraps of fabric that could be identified as 'a jean miniskirt and tank top.' "Hey! Lady!" Ellen barked, scaring the poor woman to shivers. "D'you know the nearest department store?"

Flustered, the woman patted her hair down. "Why, that would be, like, Wegmans."

"Wegmans?"

"It's just down the streets, too your left. It's, like, the biggest beauty store there ever was…in _history_." She stared at Ellen for a moment. "You'd do good going there."

Ellen mumbled some sort of a thank you to the woman and turned back to the Pokémon, smiling. "Okay, I think we got something. Let's go check it out before we waste our time battling."

"Ellen," Feolan said solemnly, "Charles just told me that he'd like to be your fashion designer."

"I did _not_!" Charles growled, shooting a glare at the snickering Mightyena. "Ellen, he's lying! Although I wouldn't mind picking out something nice for you to wear…as a friend, I mean." The others stared at him, which prompted him to blurt out randomly, "Well Ellen doesn't have a sense of style, and the only other female is Kyoshi…and she doesn't speak! So it's up to _me_ to be the style concerned one of the group!"

They continued to stare.

"Fine," he huffed, getting up. "Ellen, pay the bill. Let's go to Wegmans."

And they did.

OoO

Wegmans was, if anything, the biggest building Ellen had ever entered.

And the pinkest one, as well.

It was almost outrageous as Pallet Town—the walls were a light petal, the plushy carpeted floors were magenta, the comfortable armchairs littered about the area were hot pink, the shelves on which miscellaneous beauty items rested were a dusty rose—even the uniform for all employees was a short pink skirt and camisole. Several employees and shoppers, all very chic and prim (except for the considerably bored husbands and boyfriends) gave Ellen curious glances as she drifted about the store like a ghost, once again feeling intimidated by the high-strung socialites.

Knowing that she shouldn't waste anymore time, she moved up to a glass counter under which rested a fantastic amount of perfumes and eau de toilettes. "Um…" she about for a saleswoman, finally becoming impatient, "Hey! _Hey_! Can anybody freakin' help me out here!?"

"That's the spirit." Feolan winked up at his Anti-Trainer.

"Oh, yes, yes, yes! Sorry about that!" Almost immediately, a small, well-dressed stick literally bounced up to the group, grinning to display her pearl teeth and perfectly flushed cheeks. "We can get so busy around here…oh, my name is Lili," she squeaked happily, combing back her long, brown hair with her fingernails. "I'll be your 'little helper' for today! Now, what can I do for you?"

"Excuse me, but where is the nearest bathroom?" Charles asked dryly, "I need to go vomit."

Ellen stared at her, feeling the same puzzlement and sickness that Charles felt. "Um…well, first, I could use a new hair color…"

"_Oh_!" Lili shrieked happily, suddenly grasping Ellen's bony, dry hands in her own manicured ones. "_Oh_! Hair color happens to be my _favorite_ job to do, and it'll be yours, too, once I'm finished! Right this way, Miss!" Still clutching one of Ellen's hands, the woman did a small loop-de-loop around the counter and hurriedly pulled the girl through the crowds.

"Shit!" Feolan cried as the Pokémon blindly ran after their Anti-Trainer, weaving their way through the dense mass of people and Pokémon. "Tuh- too many people! Too many people!" The Mightyena swayed; Kyoshi and Charles steadied him.

"Oh, Feolan, don't give out on us now," said Charles fretfully, almost losing sight of Ellen. "We can't afford to get lost in here! Come on, we've almost there!" Sighing, the Charmeleon turned to see Kyoshi's concentration lingering on a particularly bored-looking Meowth being forced to try on an amethyst-studded collar. "Kyoshi! Pay attention!"

The psychic Meowth turned back to him and yowled complainingly. _But all the Meowths are wearing them_, she seemed to say. Charles had to snap at his teammates three more times before they finally reached the copious shelves of hair dyes.

Lili finally freed Ellen's hand from her grasp, which the young girl was thankful for. "Now, we have an assortment of cheap, temporary hair colors, which all conveniently wash out in one rinse, and come in _many_ shades such as red, brown, blond, black, and other assorted colors such as green, like our friend Abby has!" The stick pointed to a young woman putting away some objects on a shelf, her hair short and layered and…undeniably green.

"Huh?" 'Abby' turned from her work, and Ellen could see that her nostrils and ears had several piercings, her clothes were what one would call 'grunge', and her features were sharp as broken glass. "Uh, who're you?"

Lili grinned cheerily, if not eerily. "OUR VALUED CUSTOMER, OF COURSE!"

Abby frowned at her co-worker. "No. I mean her _name_."

"I'm Ellen," the girl explained, "I wanted to get hair dye for…" she trailed off, coming back again, "…a new look."

"Ah." Abby shrugged, going back to labeling products. She cast a sly side glance at Ellen. "I suggest black. It would go very well if you're looking for something gothic; your skin is pale enough to have it shock a few people. Or maybe blue—that's always a big one."

The young Anti-Trainer chuckled, half-way considering it. Black hair? It would do better than her mousy brown. "That's a good—"

"Oh, we'll be just _fine_ with a nice blond color, right _valued customer_?" Lili shot patronizingly, eyeing Abby with utmost annoyance. The green-haired woman rolled her eyes, disappearing into another aisle. "Don't mind _her_," the stick scoffed fussily, clutching Ellen's hand again in order to lead her into a hairdresser-like area, equipped with sinks, mirrors, and chairs. Pink, of course.

"Um…Ellen, how much is this going to cost?" Charles asked nervously, watching as Ellen sat herself in a chair. The girl shrugged, raising her eyebrows. "Oh."

"Now…" Lili leaned over Ellen's shoulder, the two looking into a mirror opposite them. "Ready to get a new look?" Ellen stared at herself, her face, her hair, tracing the shadows around her eyes, the disheveled, dirty quality of her hair. No, she did not want to 'get a new look', no matter how much people said that she needed one. If 'getting a new look' meant 'getting into Team Rocket', than she wanted no part in it.

"Yeah," she mumbled, and Lili filled the sink with scalding water and produced a pair of sleek, sharp scissors.

OoO

Kyoshi shook her head, sighing as she saw her Anti-Trainer, her hair shorter and a dull, odd blond color. How odd. And what an odd adventure she had gotten herself into! It was much better than staying in the forest, though (or so she thought at the time). There was no Tauros to gore you, and certainly no cumbersome Elder Aldans to comfort you with very little comfort involved. There were no mothers or fathers, either…but there had been none for many years. Kyoshi looked at Charles, narrowing her green, cold eyes a bit. She fought the urge to purr.

Lili was gushing about something, but Ellen couldn't quite hear her, as her ears were still clogged with water—she twisted her fingers in them, finishing just in time to hear the stick finish, "—such a nice color! Do you _love_ it?"

"Do I love it?" the girl repeated, slightly in a daze from having her head in a sink of hot water for at least ten minutes. She looked at her hair—she had to admit, it looked better cut shorter, but her new blond color accompanied by bright blond highlights did not mingle over her too well. She looked so…strange, and felt different. Squinting at the mirror, she murmured, "Sure…"

Abby bustled into the room, her arms full of assorted hair products meant to be put in their proper places. Her head turned to look at Ellen, her eyes widened. "Holy _fuck_," she said, bumping into a counter and spilling all of the bottles. She dropped to her knees, collecting them. "Boy, that's a change from an hour ago…"

Feolan finally cracked—he burst out laughing, rolling into Kyoshi who pushed him away to Charles, who send the Mightyena's shaking body back Kyoshi. This game continued for several minutes before Feolan calmed himself and cleared his throat, standing up again. "Sorry."

Ellen gave him a fierce glare, practicing her scowl if the opportunity ever came to administer one to Giovanni. "Yeah."

Abby stared at the Pokémon for a while and shook her head. "Some team you got." She stood up to exit.

"Wait," Ellen started, standing up, "you guys got any designer clothing?"

Lili and Abby looked at each other, agreeing for the first time in a long while. "Of course we do!" the stick peeped.

"Hell yeah." Abby beckoned them to follow her, and they did so.

OoO

"Hey, hey Charles! What's this thing? A hat?" Feolan had batted down a light blue something from a clothing rack and promptly fitted it on his ears, looking at himself in a mirror. "You think this looks good on me? I hope I can get Ellen to buy it."

Upon seeing the item, Charles quickly tore it off of Feolan's head and threw it across the room with distain. "Feolan, you idiot," he hissed in his ear, leading him over to where Lili, Abby, Ellen, and Kyoshi were picking out clothes, "that's a bra!"

"Oh." He paused. "What's a bra?" Charles sighed heavily and told him in the gentlest of terms. Feolan scoffed. "What the hell? Why wear those? They should just go without—"

Lili, biting her lip, carefully searched through a rack of clothing before pulling out a short pink skirt and frilly green shirt with odd additions such as animal print and flowers. "You said something totally opposite from you, right?" Ellen nodded. "Well, I suppose my absolutely _favorite_ colors, pink and green, will do. Here," she thrust the items into Ellen's arms. "Try these on."

"Ew." The girl wrinkled her nose in degust. "But…I don't even like these."

"It's not about what you like, Ellen," Charles said sagely, "it's about what Team Rocket likes."

"For now…you gotta conform." Feolan sighed, now wearing a black bra on his head. "I think this is manlier. Hey Ellen, can I get this?"

"You said you wanted a new you?" Lili snapped, pushing her in the direction of the dressing rooms. "Well, _there's the new you_!"

The Anti-Trainer slowed her walk to a stop and turned back to her, dropping the clothes. "But…I'm payin' for this, so I want something that I like. _Sort of_, I guess."

"Yeah, Lili, get something else for her besides that…_headband_." Abby nodded at the skirt.

The stick grit her teeth, her grin gone completely. Her face grew red, and surprisingly, hives broke out over her perfect neck. "You have no sense of style. Let _me_ pick it out. If you want a new look, leave it to _me_." Her eyes bulged hugely.

Abby backed up a few steps, her face turning grave. "Uh-oh," she muttered, grabbing Ellen's arm and slowly backing away from the livid saleswoman to the safety of a low row of shelves. The Pokémon crowded with them; the group bent down. "I knew it."

"What?" Ellen hissed to her, peeking over the ledge a bit. "Did I do something wrong? I bet's it's my fault. It was like in this movie I saw, where these ladies all turned into giant aliens…"

"Oh, shut up!" growled Feolan. "We're trying to listen to Abby!"

"I've always suspected this," Abby whispered, narrowing her eyes. "I've worked part-time at Wegmans for almost 2 years—the salesgirls— they're just too perfect. I've always thought that they were—"

Suddenly, there was a loud _wumph_ noise, and a huge, terrifying mushroom cloud tore through the floor. The group ducked below the shelves as small bits of metal took to the air, slicing into the walls. The other salesgirls screamed and ducked behind shelves and counters, while the poor shoppers only could stare. In a painstakingly long while, the smoke finally cleared and unsheathed all that was left of Lili—a small, black pile of ash.

"—machines," finished Abby, once they had gone from their sheltered and strayed into the open area.

Bummer," said Feolan.

"What the _hell_?" Ellen asked to herself. "Total bummer."

"More than just a 'total bummer'!" yelped Abby, finding Ellen's clothes under a broken table and tossing them to her, although the fabric was scorched and blackened slightly. She paced restlessly, placing a hand on a smoke-stained wall. "It's a conspiracy! It's a plot. I need to find out if the owner knows about this…" she turned to Ellen and her Pokémon. "Will you come with me, just in case? I don't have my Pokémon right now, and if things are dangerous…"

The end of the sentence spoke for itself. The Anti-Trainer threw her Pokémon nervous glances. "Uh…sure…why not…"

"Fabulous!" she proclaimed, kicking a spare gear across the room and leading Ellen to the presumed hallway. "We must speak to the manager immediately! A crisis is at hand, and we seem to be the only ones who can stop it! Wait…" she turned to Ellen, producing a pair of thin glasses from her pocket. She fit them on the bridge of the Anti-Trainer's nose and picked up Lily's nametag from the ground, pinning it on her shirt. "Maybe she won't notice that you're not an employee if you have these on."

"I look like a librarian," she growled. Abby laughed and assured her she looked perfectly fine, (but there was a hint of doubt in her voice.)

The group stopped at a door with a brass name plate saying: '**Manager,'** and Abby slammed open the door, bursting in while screeching like an Aipom and swinging her fists. Then, suddenly, she struck a ninja pose and flew through the air, shouting, "THE SILENT ABBY STRIKES AGAIN!"

Feolan jumped in wearing a long black trench coat and sunglasses, pulling out two huge guns and laughing manically.

Kyoshi pumped two rounds of lead into the wall with…a rubber ducky?

And finally, Charles…started to sing Broken Arrow?

Ellen jumped in behind her and struck a ninja pose, only pausing to run up a wall and jump on the manager's desk, yowling crazily.

Which, unfortunately, was empty.

"Hey," the Anti-Trainer said slowly, "no one's in here!" The Pokémon stopped shooting and singing and looked around. Indeed, the room was empty.

"But that's what they _want_ us to think," Abby said slyly, closing the door and pushing her back up to the wall, green eyes gleaming wildly. "It's all a con-" Suddenly, the employee was interrupted by the murmur of voices outside the door. "It's the manager! Make you're self scarce!"

There were several turns of the doorknob and a young woman walked in, sporting a crisp black jacket and skirt, a pair of cat-eye glasses perched delicately on her thin nose. Her fiery red hair was pinned on top of her head in a bun, tufts of hair spinning wildly out of place. She shuffled into the room, followed by two female Rocket members, and sat down in her desk chair, folding her hands neatly on the table. "So," she said, her crimson lips pursing and a small smile etched on her face. "You are certain all new employees are being altered?" The two girls bobbed their heads.

"Oh yes," said one, nodding her head rapidly, but stealing a glance at the other one, "we're making sure of that, Miss Hobotson."

"Please," said the woman, leaning back in her chair and raising her dark eyebrows, "call me Troy." The two Rockets looked at each other and exchanged worried looks under the watchful eye of Troy. "Something wrong?"

"Well," said the other Rocket. "There is this one woman…"

"Who hasn't seemed too changed," finished the other. "Her name is Abby Hoskidans. It must be something to do with the green hair."

"Indeed," muttered Rocket Two.

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT GREEN HAIR!" sputtered the red-faced Troy Hobotson, standing up and pressing her knuckles against the desk and making small cracks in the wood. "Just turn them all into robots! We _must_ lead Rocket Industries with an iron fist! We _must_ always live up to our duties! Remember, I AM FIRST-IN-COMMAND! We do NOT want to sink as low as that second-in-command awful Donovan!"

"Ohoho," whispered Feolan from somewhere, "Donovan got served!"

Rocket One frowned. "But Donovan is so hot…"

"I DO NOT CARE IS HE IS PHYSICALLY ATTRACTIVE!"

"Or has good taste in clothing…?"

"NEITHER DO I CARE ABOUT HIS CLOTHING!"

"And that's he smart?"

"INTELLIGENCE DOES MATTER, THOUGH!"

The two Rocket girls cupped hands over their ears. "Geez, woman! You can stop yelling now!"

Troy blinked. "Oh," she said quietly, "you're right. Anyway, you need to turn Abby into a robot, and, on the boot," she added, "after we're finished with her, let's find Ellen."

The Two nodded sagely. "Does this mean there won't be any hair care products and doughnuts?" they asked.

Troy groaned and massaged her forehead. "Yes, this means no hair care products and doughnuts…" The woman sat back and frowned, cocking her head. "Do you hear something?"

Something groaned.

And then again.

Troy looked up and blinked. She faltered. "Why is there an Abby on my ceiling?" They all looked up. Abby had positioned herself on the ceiling, clutching the plaster with her long green finger-nails. Suddenly, she laughed.

"CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, SUCKER ROCKETS!" Abby screamed, dropping to the ground and grinning madly. "I'll fight you off with my ninja skills! I was trained by Koga, you know!" She punched the air and did a roundhouse kick, brandishing her awesome Nike sneakers. "These didn't cost me two hundred dollars for nothin'!" The shoes clicked dangerously.

And suddenly Abby was wielding two large machine guns and sporting fabulously Matrix sunglasses.

Troy sneered and pulled out a handgun, aiming it at Abby's head. "You're empty," she snickered, standing up.

"So are you," retorted Abby, smiling a bit. She turned to Ellen, who was pretending to be a plant.

"Photosynthesis…" the Anti-Trainer mumbled, waving her arms. "Photosynthesis… photosynthesis… photosynthesis… photosynthesis…"

"Ellen!" barked Abby, tossing her a gun. "Get out here!" The Anti-Trainer stopped using oxygen to gain ATP and jumped up next to Abby. Troy looked thoroughly confused and dropped her gun on the floor with a metallic clank.

"Oh," she said softly, slowly edging away from her desk. "I believe we need to use…" She took a deep breath and pulled open her desk drawer, as the two Rocket twins ran over. "OUR ESCAPE POD TO SPIT CO.!" The woman cackled manically and pressed the big red button, which sent the walls flying open to produce a small, pod-like vehicle, which the three jumped into to. "Astalavista, baby!"

And with that, Team Rocket blasted ever-so-stylishly off once again.

The Pokémon slowly emerged out of their respective hiding spots. Feolan blinked and lowered his sunglasses, ditching his trench-coat while Charles threw his microphone across the room, and finally Kyoshi set the rubber ducky down, giving it one last reassuring squeeze.

"Well," said Abby, squinting through the hole in the roof, "want to explain to me what just happened?"

* * *

"So…let me get this straight. You're part of a Rocket-stopping organization?"

"Yup, Anti-Trainers."

"And you need to defeat the Elite Four to see Rayquaza?"

"What ever the boss man Russell tells me."

"And you say you competed with Mirror B in a dancing contest, won…and then confronted Giovanni?"

"That was a bloody good time…The dance contest, I mean. Rocket leader…not…so…fun."

"Wait, wait, wait," said Abby, turning to face a pinkly-dressed Ellen. "And _now_ you're going in disguise to break into the Rocket-filled Silph Co? That's why you asked for hair dye and new clothing? And…" she narrowed her eyes. "You just a few minutes ago also asked for overdramatic make-up, new _pink_ earrings, a new pair of pink gloves and the new Nintendo Revolution and Animal Crossing DS?"

Ellen's eyes narrowed as they walked towards the front door of Wegmans. "Yeah, you got a problem with that?"

"She probably had a problem with everything," laughed Feolan.

"Hey, shut up!" she hissed, and Abby pointed at her, shocked, her ringed finger shaking madly.

"And…and…what's with all the talking back to your Pokémon?"

Ellen stuffed her hands in her pocket after tossing her backpack to Abby for safe keeping. Well, the Anti-Trainer thought, there's only one thing to do. Ellen jumped up and pointed behind Abby, her gray eyes bulging. "MY LORD!" she screamed. "WHAT'S THAT BEHIND YOU?" The former-employee squealed and turned around.

"Hey," she said after a while, "there's nothing there."

But when she turned around, Ellen had already left for Silph Co.

* * *

The Rocket stared at her and finally blinked…and then blinked again. Ellen stood in front of him, eyeing the door anxiously through her thin wire reading glasses. "So…you say you're name is Jennifer Flowerposysniffer and you want to join Team Rocket for the good of all evil corporations in the three Regions?" the Rocket asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Yep," said Ellen in a very high-pitched, cheery voice, a very, very cheesy grin plastered against her face. She picked up Kyoshi. "Look, I even have my own Meowth, Miss. Cuddlevilkins! Evil corporations are the best!" She gave him a thumb-up and dropped the Meowth.

Emotions flew. The Rocket smiled, and wiped a tear from his eye, stepping away from the door and linking arms with Ellen. "That…is the most heartfelt thing I've ever heard about Team Rocket." He pulled out a box of flower-print Tissues and wiped his eyes again, sniveling happily. "I am so moved. It takes a lot of feeling to get me to use my flower Kleenex, especially if they have tulips on them. You're in!" And he led her into the massive building, still whimpering from happiness.

"Of please," muttered Feolan, following Ellen. "That guy was such a girly-man. Look, see that tube of red lipstick in his pocket?"

Miss. Cuddlevilkins nodded, trying to rid herself of the terrible stupid name.

Charles didn't answer. He was looking for a trash can.

-Endo of Part 1, yo!-

* * *

Hey, I'm back everybody! Wait for the next exciting chapter, hommies! See ya!

P.S- Abby, if somehow you end up reading this, I hope I didn't make your bi-polar opposite two weird! Of course, I always noticed a hint of green in you're hair…just kidding.

P.P.S- Who else is gonna bring you, a broken arrow…? La…La…


	18. Silph Part Two: Son of a…Professor

Happy Holidays from Flameboo! And let's see what the Grunts are up to when you don't see them lurking around Kanto…

P.S- Yeah, Ghost of Ivan…it is really Silph Co. Thanks. (Grumbles crankily.) I own nothing but me characters. Yar.

* * *

Rocket-Break-in Part 2

Son of a…PROFESSOR!

The Silph Co. elevator merrily clicked its way up the walls, carrying the Guard along with Ellen and Co.

The elevator suddenly made sort of a wheezing noise and stopped. "Um…is that normal?" asked Ellen testily.

"Why yes," replied the Guard, "actually, it happens every time we use it. These elevators are forty years old."

"Mommy!" screamed Charles, hanging onto the ceiling as the elevator gave a sharp lurch and resumed moving upwards to the forth floor. After that, there were several moments of silence in which Kyoshi could happily send out Bad and Good Vibes and no one would notice why they were so depressed for five seconds, and then suddenly blissfully unaware of anything.

Suddenly, the elevator clicked dangerously, and made a small, _ping_ noise. The Guard looked up apprehensively, but then frowned. "Huh. Someone else is getting on."

And so they were. The doors opened, and two burly looking Grunts walked into the elevator, accompanied by a small figure between them, one Ellen knew from the very beginning. It was the same clothing, the same shoes, same headband, the same HAIR for crying out loud! He kind of slouched over, but then jumped up even though the Rockets held his thin arms.

"Hey Ellen!" said Brandon cheerfully, a huge grin spreading across his bright face. "Didn't expect to see me here, huh? So what happen? Did you get caught for trying to foil them too?"

"I'm-not-Ellen," growled Ellen in her falsetto voice, glaring at Brandon and slouching over. "I'm Jennifer…Posy…Flower…._snifer._"

Brandon looked confused for a second and blinked very slowly as the elevator doors closed and they were back on track. Suddenly, he laughed. "Boy, you were always a funny girl, Ellen! So, how life been? Haven't seen you for what…two, three weeks? Crazy party, huh? Yeh, that was some serious stuff going on there, let me tell you! And then-"

"Who ever you are," hissed Ellen, "SHUT UP. I'M JENNIFER POSEYFLOWERSNIFER, AND I INTEND TO STAY THAT. I-AM-NOT-ELLEN. CLEAR?"

"Yeh," he replied meekly, as the muscular Grunts jostled him a bit just for fun. Brandon resembled a wounded puppy for the rest of the elevator ride, and nothing came up hinting the slightest bit of the name 'Ellen.' Finally, with the ping of the elevator, they had reached the forth floor, and the doors opened to an empty room.

"Oh," said the Guard, pulling up his sleeve to look at his watch. "They've all gone to train. I suppose you'll have to find you're way around from here. Sorry, I need to get back to my post." Ellen frowned. She actually liked the little guy, him not being some murderous freak.

"Alright," she said, eyeing Brandon. "And what about him?"

The first Grunt grumbled irritably and threw Brandon forward, while the other Grunt translated for him. "He want you to take care of him for a while- show that lout the ropes of being a Grunt- and don't let him out of you're sight."

Ellen saluted him playfully. "Aye-aye, captain!"

_**Two seconds later-**_

The Anti-Trainer decided it was not fun to be suspended it mid-air.

"Uh-" gasped Ellen, her eyes watering. "You're-crushing-my-esophagus. Please-stop. It-hurts-a-lot." The Grunt dropped her with a growl, and left to the elevator, closing the doors behind him.

As soon as they left, Brandon jumped up and pointed a shaking finger at her. "Okay, I know you're Ellen! I just know it! You have the same teeth, and the same annoyed way of talking and the-"

"Great. So what if the son of Professor can recognize me? I'm sure he's taught you all kinds of sciency tricks, right?"

"Actually," he replied brightly, "I've always wanted to be a Pokemon Master, of some sorts."

"Yep." Ellen jumped up and surveyed her surroundings. Other then Brandon and her Pokemon, she seemed to be the only one in the drab and gray room. "Now, what are we gonna do about this Grunt thing? I managed to get by the guard- he thinks I'm in love with evil."

Brandon stopped scratching Kyoshi behind the ears and blinked his brown eyes. "And I've already been captured and expected to join Rocket Corporation. It's actually a bit of a bummer. I was just having so much fun defeating that bi-polar Erika and then, _boom_, it all went downhill! First, the Game Corner was closed!" (Ellen and her Pokemon snickered at this precise moment.) Brandon frowned at them. "What so funny? Trying to ridicule a man's tears?"

"Nuthin," intoned Ellen as she began to walk away. A small sign on a door caught her eye. "Hey," she pointed at it and ran forward. "This room had Rocket uniforms! Talk about blending in, huh?" She looked over at Brandon to find him chatting with Feolan. The conversation kind of went like this:

"So, what's you're name, Mightyena?"

"_Yo momma."_

"Do you like Ellen as a trainer? She seems to be a little on the mean side, but I like her."

"_This will be of valuable use to Ellen. Keep it up, Bleach Boy."_

"Ellen seems kind of different in a weird sort of way. I wonder what's she been up too since August. It's like she never really does anything."

"_Ha-ha, she's done more than you. We've been to Mt. Moon, met the weird Anti-Trainers, met a Rocket Executive more than I've liked, whooped some gym leaders, helped some drunk Meowths, gambled and then scared off the head of Rocket Corporation, crashed an evil salon store, and now we're here. Dang- try and beat that, Pokemon Master."_

"Oh well, Ellen is calling me. Better get over there. See ya!"

"_Good riddance."_

* * *

The locker room wasn't entirely what Ellen had suspected- it was gray, as all the other rooms in the building were, but it looked more like a lounge than a locket room. Brandon jumped into an armchair and relaxed.

"They probably didn't bother changing the furniture from a lounge to save money," he said. "It's actually a pretty nice place for the lowest of the low, yeh?" he laughed and kicked his feet up on a footrest as Ellen inspected some of the lockers.

"You're such an idiot- get over here and help me look for a uniform."

He looked hurt and stood up, waddling over to her. They looked through the lockers for a while, only finding nothing, used uniforms, or a really smelly mold that grew on the sides of the locker and began to spew out an unpleasant green liquid that vaguely reminded Ellen of the time Charles forgot to use a tissue when blowing his nose.

Finally, Brandon sighed and walked over to the Anti-Trainer who had narrowly avoided the green spray and slammed the locker shut with a bang. "Have you checked in that locker?" he asked, pointing at a large door saying: NEW UNIFORMS, IDIOTS!

"Oops."

After a while, the two stepped out of their respective lockers and looked at each other.

"You look very evil," Brandon pointed out to Ellen, as she tried to get used to walking around in boots. "And that's a good thing."

"Yeah," said Ellen. "And you look like a pansy. That's not a good thing. So, I'm Jennifer Poseyflowersnifer. What's you're name going to be?"

He looked confused for a second as Charles walked out wearing a similar uniform to Brandon's. "…Well, I'm Brandon Birch. Seems simple enough."

The Anti-Trainer sighed. This was going to be hard. She put her arm around Brandon's shoulder and looked at him seriously. "Now, now Brandon. Let's think about this. If, perhaps, we really get into this scheme and starting committing arson and murder and other cool things like that, do you really think people aren't gonna notice you?"

"I feel pretty," said Feolan, who had appeared in a uniform closely resembling Ellen's. "This skirt makes me feel so totally hot."

"Well," said Brandon slowly, his mind creaking into motion with a small _woof_ noise, "I could make up a new name. But my dad is expecting me back at the lab after I've crashed this place."

"I'VE?" laughed Ellen. "You mean WE! You're not the only one who's taking this down!"

"I don't think I should mention the word 'Ellen' if we get back. Dad's still pretty mad about you stealing the Charmander and siding with that rabid Mightyena."

Feolan and Charles laughed merrily at him.

Ellen brushed the comments off. "Ah, don't worry about it. I'll get him a nice present and then everything will be forgiven. Now, the name factor!"

Brandon blushed nervously and looked down at his boots, which were killing his feet. He began to stutter. "Well…yeh, I made up this name…how about I'll be called Dwight Bark? You know….Dwight….like white, and then bark you know, like tree bark!" Brandon jumped up happily. "ISN'T IT COOL? I MADE IT UP MYSELF A WHILE AGO WHEN I USED TO PRETEND I WAS A POKEMON MASTER! HEHEHEHE-"

Ellen clamped a glove over his mouth and pulled him back against an armchair. "Shut up, Dwight. Someone's coming." The Pokemon crowded around them, as the door opened and a crowd of Grunts entered and stopped dead, noticing the two people hiding behind the chair.

"Uh, can we help you?" one asked in a slightly French accent.

Brandon was the first to jump out. "Yes! We're new Grunts and wish to join the you're group, right Ell- Jennifer?"

"Uh-huh, we like evil." Ellen held up Kyoshi. "See- I have a Meowth! Ohhhhhhh…..eeevvvvviiiiillllll…!" A few Grunts clapped politely.

"Great fer you," another one said in the back. "We only have Zubats and Ratitata. See?" They all held up they're respective Pokemon. Ellen and Brandon clapped politely.

"Very nice, very nice," muttered Ellen. "Wow, this job is off to a great start! Okay, who wants to show us around?"

No one raised their hand.

Ellen sighed and pulled something out of her pocket. "Who wants twenty dollars?"

Everyone raised their hand.

In the end, the two managed to pick out two intelligent looking Grunts to take them around, while all the others left, yelling threats as they walked through the door.

"Don't mind them," said a girl named Natalie, pushing her thick black curls out of her face and pocketing the twenty. "Their just jealous of us. Most Grunts really don't mean any harm. They just do what they're told." She held out her hand for the two to shake. "I'm Natalie Greenwell. Pleased to meet you. And you are…?"

Ellen glanced wearily at Natalie as she waved, displaying a huge diamond ring. "Jennifer. Jennifer….Floret. These are my Pokemon Charlie, Leoan, and Yoshi. And that's…that's one dynamite bling." Natalie smiled at them happily.

"It's a family heirloom," she murmured.

Suddenly the second Grunt zipped up, the French one from before. "Ralph Lefebvre," he said politely, bowing low. "A pleasure to meet you, Madame Floret. _C'est tres magnifique_."

"I'm Dwight Bark," Brandon growled, looking angrily at Ellen for changing her name to something less embarrassing and at Ralph for interrupting. "I only have an Ivysaur named Krum that I got from Professor Birch."

"Pokemon Master?" guessed Natalie.

Brandon blinked and his eyes widened. "How did you know?"

"Easy. A lot of people want to do that. I wanted to do that, but I ran out of money and was forced to work here. Ralph came from some place called Francelevania or something where they don't have English or Pokemon. So when he came over here, the Rockets took advantage of his naïveté and pulled him in to work."

"Bummer," said Ellen.

"Total bummer," agreed Feolan.

"Indubitably," finished Charles.

"So you want to see the place?" asked Natalie, leading them out the door into the main room. "There's not much I can take you too cause Grunts are only allowed on the forth, fifth, and first floors."

"Why?" asked Brandon.

Ralph spoke up. "In case we try and backstab the corporation."

Natalie smiled slightly. "Or steal anything. Like we'd actually even try."

The two laughed.

The four walked through the large room until they made a sharp turn to the left and entered a long hallway, which was lined with doors.

"Déjà vu," said Charles eerily.

Natalie stopped at a door labeled Empty and quietly knocked on the wood. "It's just me, guys," she yelled, as there came several groggy replies and then the shifting of feet.

"Don't bother us nowww," a voice whined, close to the door. "Nancy and David just brought in a six-"

"I don't care about beer!" she screamed, pounding on it furiously. "Just let me in, alright? We got new people here!"

"Whatever..." said the voice, which opened the door. Several Grunts were sitting on the floor or on chairs, dealing out a pack of cards.

"Care for a late night game of B.S?" offered a male Grunt to Natalie, tossing a card at her which fluttered to the ground at her feet. She didn't look very amused. "You don't have to be mean about it," he muttered tossing the back of card down and slipping away.

"WHOA!" screamed Feolan suddenly, pointing on the other side of the room with one paw and hitting Charles with the other. "LOOK! AN EVIL YOU, CHARLES!" The Charmeleon looked up to see another Charmeleon with slightly darker scales glaring back at him. He hissed and clawed the air.

"EXCELLENT!" Charles yelled back.

(Screaming electric guitar music)

"_That was random,"_ thought Kyoshi to the other three. They all agreed.

So, getting back on track, Natalie explained that was an area in which the Grunts could really do anything they wanted in this room, (with exceptions, duh.) She also noted it was a very popular place to go. "This place is sort of like common room," she said sagely, leading the group out and closing the door behind her as the distinct noise of a fight broke out.

"Oh, oh! I wanta be sorted into Gryffindor!" yelled Brandon cheerily, spazing at the use of the word 'common room.'

Ralph laughed. "You English are quite weird."

"Hey, that's not very nice!" shouted Brandon. "You're making fun of other cultures! That could get Flameboo sued or something!"

"HUH?" they all said loudly, as the boy shook her head and told them to forget about it.

"Never mind, never mind," Ralph muttered. "It's already midnight, anyway. You people got in late, I'd say ten thirty at the least. But who can tell with all that fog going on in Saffron city, you know?"

The two lead them back down the hall, taking a sharp right back, and then curved around the hall to another one, almost identical except with more noise of boisterous yelling and laughing.

"This is where you'll be staying." Natalie gestured to a door marked 122 and opened it just a bit, slowly creeping back. "Uh, we female folk don't usually stay around much, if you catch my drift," she said quickly, grabbing Ellen's arm and inching away. "Okayhopeyoulikeitbye."

And the two were gone.

Brandon and Ralph stood in the door way as the clear sound of a gun being fired echoed through the walls. "Well, _salut!"_ And Ralph disappeared in a cloud of fancy dust.

"Uhhh…help?" said Brandon, as he was slowly pulled into the room by his ankles.

* * *

The two had reached another hall in a mere five seconds thanks to Natalie's quick sprinting and Ellen being dragged on the floor.

"Well," she hissed cheerfully, brushing the dirt off her black skirt. Wait. What did it matter? It was a freakin' black Grunt skirt. "Thanks for showing us around and all. Geez, you don't know how helpful that was. I never would have known we actually got a place to stay…"

"Actually, it's only for us 'hobos.' Most Rockets go home, except for really important people like Executives and the Boss."

"Meep," said Ellen.

"Aww, don't worry. Me and my friends will keep you right, I hope." Finally they stopped at another door and swung it open, displaying a large room with bunk beds. "It's sort of like summer camp, ain't it?" she laughed, jumping on a bed and waking most people around her up. "Everyone!" she yelled, "THIS IS JENNIFER! SAY HI, EVERYBODY!"

"I hate you," muttered a voice.

"Go away."

"Bite me."

"WELL, AREN'T WE A FRIENDLY BUNCH! G'NIGHT EVERYBODY!" And with that, some unseen light turned off and Ellen was left in the middle of the room. So, she just kind of decided tostay there. Using Feolan as a pillow.

* * *

Ellen couldn't sleep, especially becausethat stupid Mightyenaturned the tables and had ended up using her as a pillow. So, she just stared at the ceiling, trying to count the small cracks in the plaster and wondering if she should just leave now and head back home. '_That one looks like a cloud.' _she thought, examining a very large blank spot. '_And that one's anuclear missile. And that one's a-_"

"Hey- psssttt- Jennifer! Are you awake?"

"Uhh...depends. Who are you?"

Natalie jumped up and shone a flash light in Ellen's face. "I was wonderin' about today…and I thought you and Dwight seem like pretty nice. Me and Ralph are going out to try and sneak some doughnuts from floor six- wanna come? We already asked Dwight."

"Hi Jennifer," Brandon whispered through the door. "I like chocolate glazed! With little rainbow sprinkles! Come on, I can't wait any longer for the DOUGHNUTS!"

Ellen sprang up, waking the Pokémon who emitted irritated groans. Suddenly, the word 'Doughnuts' spread through their minds. They heard…they thought…and then they wanted sugar.

Then the Anti-Trainer stopped. What if this was a trick? Nah- no one could see through her clever disguise- with the exception of Brandon, of course, that stupid son of a…Professor. "Heck- why not. I'll come. Might as well get some doughnuts!" Brandon and Natalie grinned and gave her the thumbs up as the Pokémon hopped out of the room to them, also beaming. Full-throttle sugar addicts at their finest.

And, finally, with one fluid movement, Ellen crept out of the room and down the hall with her new friends, choosing possibly one of the best choices she had made in her life.

She stuck with them.

* * *

Well, didn't expect that coming did, you? Huh? HUH? HUH? 

Oh, I give a big thanks to the Super Flash Bros for making the great Decline of Video Gaming movies.

Merry Christhannakwanza and a Happy New Year!

P.S- Review, me hardies!


	19. Silph Part Three: Rocket Science

Ta Da. Nuff' said.

* * *

Rocket-Break-in Part 3

Rocket Science

(A.K.A: The WHAZ UP! Chapter)

About a while ago, in an elevator far, far away, past the McDonald's and through Saffron City, past where me and my friends were chased by a rabid squirrel and lived (except for Austen; he deserved it,) past where the hippies when to smoke, past where my friend and I bought disgusting pretzels at Rusty's (and actually ate them,) and past where the two Gyms were, was a girl named Ellen who was on an eventful journey. Now, let see what she's doing in the Silph Co. elevator right now…

Brandon is having a seizure from lack of sugar. Ralph is still babbling in French about fruitcake. Natalie is just standing there. Ellen is running around and screaming because of claustrophobia. Kyoshi is levitating in mid-air. And finally, Charles and Feolan are having an epic battle with lightsabers.

"Your training is complete," said Charles solemnly, "and now is your chance to defeat Darth Brandon. May the force be with you, young Feolan Pawflipper."

"I will do my best, Obi-Char Kameleon," replied Feolan.

The slapped each other a high-five.

"Now…ATTACK!"

Everything happened at once, which made it a pretty funny scene. Feolan jumped up and bit Brandon's leg. Brandon screamed and kicked Kyoshi who got mad and gave everyone major headaches which caused a dancing banana to appear. The elevator door opened and everyone fell out, except the dancing banana that disappeared.

"Ow."

"Let's hope that didn't wake anyone up."

"My spleen!"

"I want my Mommy!"

"Feolan, you-"

_MEANWHILE…ON THE TENTH FLOOR, WE FIND A FERMILIAR FACE…OR SHOULD I SAY PIKACHU…OR SHOULD I SAY- OH IT'S JUST DONOVAN! NOW READ IT!_

"Psst…Yo…D-money! Wake up!"

"Hmmmuhhh…?"

"Come on, yo!"

"Huuuuuhhhhhh?"

"It's me! Mirror B!"

"AHHHHHHH!" screamed Donovan, falling on the floor and crawling under his bed. "Who invited you here?"

Mirror B dropped his small teddy bear on the ground as Donovan Jr. rushed over and began to tear it up. "I heard a noise!"

Donovan peered out from under the bed. "Yeah? So? How did you get in here anyway? I locked the freakin' door!"

"I used my awesome disco moves to open it!"

"Dude. That's just not right."

"Get out from under the bed!" yelled Mirror B angrily. Donovan did so. "I swear- I heard screamin' and the sounds of a Mighyenna and a funky Charmeleon playing Star Wars together and then a dancing banana and then a fresh falsetto voice!"

Donovan frowned as the Zombie Pikachu started to have a seizure. "I wish _I_ could hear things like that. You go see what's going on."

"But…"

"But what?"

Mirror B. cowered slightly. "Ca- Cause I'm…I'm freaked out, mmaaaannnn!"

"You're such an idiot!" yelled Donovan, turning on the light. It turns out Mirror B. had Care Bear pajamas on. "HOLY CRAP!" he shouted, stumbling backwards. "IT'S THE SIGN OF THE DEVIL! IT BUUURRRRRNNNNNSSSSS!"

Mirror B. blushed. "I swear, it was an accident! Since when do you wear a _suit_ to bed?"

Donovan sighed exasperatedly. "Since I have a lot of paperwork to do…Man, I HATE paperwork! Being promoted to Second-in-Command isn't as fun as it sounds!"

"Besides the maiming Saturdays," put in the disco man helpfully. Donovan gasped angrily.

"YOU got maiming Saturdays? I didn't get maiming Saturdays, and maiming is my favorite hobby! How DARE Giovanni?"

Suddenly, a furious Troy Hobotson burst in with cucumbers over her eyes, lotion on her face, and a huge pair of fuzzy pink bunny slippers on her feet. "SHUT UP YOU IDIOTS! CAN'T YOU SEE I'M TRYING TO GET SOME BEAUTY REST?" She took the cucumbers off, examined them; shrugged; and began to eat the small slices of vegetable.

"She's a witch! She's a witch!" screamed Donovan, pulling out his knives.

"Let's burn that chick!" added Mirror B. "She turned me into a Bagon!"

"A BAGON?" asked Donovan.

"I got better."

Troy sighed heavily and crossed her arms. "I don't have time for your silly little arguments about witches. All I have time for is that stupid noise you've been making!"

Mirror B. held his hands up in mock defeat. "Hey baby- we're innocent. We've been hearing it to!"

"Then shouldn't you go see who it is?"

"Why shouldn't _you_ go?" asked Donovan, narrowing his eyes.

Troy narrowed her eyes back.

They glared at each other.

Mirror B. began to dance.

Somewhere far off Erika got ticked off.

Somewhere even farther off Ellen's Mom wondered if she should have warned her about Rockets.

Somewhere in America an insane girl was sitting on her bed typing a story about this other girl named Ellen who…whoa…that was weird.

Anyway, the two continued to stare at each other.

Troy blinked.

"HA!" shouted Donovan triumphantly, pointing a finger at her. "I won the staring contest and that's why everyone loves me!"

Troy shrugged. "Fine then. Winner gets to go check out the noise."

"Mirror B. needs to do it! He's Third-in-Command!"

The disco man screamed a little _too_ femininely and then jumped out the window. Just kidding. He just screamed and then repeated the phrase: 'Clowns will eat me…clowns will eat me…clowns will eat me…'

"Well, if he won't go, then fine! I'll go!" Donovan grumbled angrily and marched away, pausing only to sic Donovan Jr. on the Troy and then throw something large, hard, pointy, and preferably painful at Mirror B., whose afro had turned bright green because I'm random like that.

_OKAY, THAT WAS SORT OF POINTLESS. _

_GET OVER IT. _

_YEAH, I'M TALKING TO YOU, YOU LAZY SCUM._

_SORRY. THE AUTHORESS IS AN IDIOT. IGNORE THAT LAST PHRASE._

_WHY SHOULD THEY?_

_WHY AM I HAVING AN ARGUMENT WITH MYSELF?_

_OH WELL._

_MEANWHILE, ELLEN AND CO. ARE STILL ON THE FLOOR. LET'S SEE THEM NOW._

Ellen rolled over on the floor. "All this for some freaking doughnuts? What are you, crazy or something?"

"Jennifer, your voice just changed," pointed out Brandon fearfully as Ellen hit herself on the head and coughed a few times. The white-haired lad groaned when Ralph started up on fruitcake again.

"Get up people!" hissed Natalie, clambering to stand up.

"Must…have…doughnuts…" muttered Feolan in some weird trance and he walked forward with Kyoshi. Ralph groaned.

"_Zut!_ This is not the right floor Natalie! The Dancing Banana must have caused the elevator to stop. Alright, everyone back on," he said, and everyone shuffled back onto the elevator and up to the doughnut floor.

* * *

Everyone except Feolan and Kyoshi. 

The Mightyena snapped out of his fix. "Hey," he called to Kyoshi, "where'd everyone go?"

She pointed to the elevator.

Feolan gasped. "Oh my Mew! They all turned into an ELEVATOR!"

She shook her head and sighed, pulling Feolan over to the elevator. The Meowth jumped up to press the button, but it was jammed.

"Damn," said Feolan. "This is NOT what we need right now. Especially when I'm stuck here with some Normal Pokémon!"

"Ahem," coughed Kyoshi, surrounding herself with a purple aura and floating up in the air. "_We should look around; maybe we can find another way out,"_ she communicated telepathically.

"Whatever." The two walked around for a while. The floor was bigger than they expected and stretched for a distance, via hallways and open spaces. Soon, though, Kyoshi perked up her sharp ears.

"_I hear Pokémon talking."_

"Really Lassie? Is Jimmy stuck in the well agai-"

_**Pay Day'd.**_

"Just kidding!" said Feolan angrily. "But I do hear Pokémon too. We should try to find them."

The sounds grew louder as the two walked deeper into the level, until they reached a huge warehouse door, obviously where the noise was coming from. Feolan pushed it open and walked through.

And guess who greeted them!

To the tune of _We're off to See the Wizard_

"_Hello, hello, hello, say hello to me!_"

"_We hope, you like this, because you might be here for eternityyyyy!"_

"_Guys, we hope, you know how to set us free!"_

"_Because, because, because, because, because!"_

"_Because we've been stuck here for a long time now!"_

_La la la la la la la_

"_We've been stuck here for a long time nowwwwwww, AND there is that rabid COW!"_

"A bloody cow? A thought it was a bull!"

"No, it's a cow."

"Then how can a cow have horns and look like a Tauros?"

"It's just a bloody cow."

"No it's not, you git!"

"Yes it tis. A Snesel told me."

"What? You can never trust those Pokémon, bloke. Now, what did they say?"

"They talked to the Cow. The Sneasel say that it replied: Moo."

Feolan was beginning to get angry and slapped the nearest Meowth, who happened to be Houston.

The Meowth shook his head and pointed at him. "Hey, I remember you! You're that bloke who tried to sell me a stove!"

"Err, that was the Appliance Salesman," muttered Michigan into his ear.

Houston laughed. "Right! That's means you're Feolan. That was my second guess."

"Sure it was," said Michigan. "Anyway, we and about two hundred other Pokémon were captured by the Rockets and have no clue how to escape. Houston picked the lock on our cage, but we don't know what to do with the others."

"As in, you know," added Houston, "we don't want Duskull floating around spooking everybody like a bloody git. It's just not sensible. Do you have any ideas?"

Feolan shrugged.

Kyoshi walked past Feolan and entered through the doorway. The three other Pokémon glanced at each other, shrugged, and followed.

* * *

About the time Donovan left his room, Ellen was spazzing about Kyoshi and Feolan because after the group had gotten off the elevator onto the doughnut floor, she remembered them but the elevator button was jammed. Natalie suggested that they used the stairs, but as soon as they got there a horrible stench reeked through the air. 

"Yo," said a Grimer, resting peacefully on the stairs accompanied by at least ten companions. "Whaz up?"

"WHAZ UP?" said another.

"WHAZ UP?"

"WHAZ UP?"

"WHAZ UP?"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" said Charles.

"WHAZ UP?"

"WHAZ UP?"

"WHAZ UP?"

The cycle continued for several minutes until the group walked away.

"Okay, so I guess that's a no go," Brandon said. "Are there any other ways beside the elevator and stairs? A fire escape, maybe?"

Ralph shook his head. "No, there is nothing else here. Maybe we should wait in the doughnut room until morning and then sneak away."

"Sounds good to me," whispered Natalie. "To the doughnut room!"

The Holy Doughnut Room ended up being a lounge with a box of Krispy Kreme on the table.

"YOU"RE KIDDING ME!" yelled Ellen, waving her hands in the air. "I mean seriously, only ONE BOX OF FREAKING DOUGHNUTS? What's up with that, man?"

"I dunno," said Brandon, picking up a doughnut and sniffing it. "I don't think we should even be in here right now, considering I'm already in trouble."

The Anti-Trainer hopped up on a couch and started to read _Nintendo Power Magazine_. "I'm bored."

Charles jumped up too and read over her shoulder. "Let's burn this magazine," he suggested as Ellen gasped.

"Are you crazy? Nintendo Power is holy!" She threw the copy down and picked out _Southern Living Magazine_. "Now we can really light a fire with this! What else can we add?"

"A doughnut!" The Charmeleon suggested, putting one on the magazine.

"What about this magnet?" Ellen tossed the metal in the pile.

"A floorboard!"

"Googly Eyes!"

"Ear cleaners!"

"A brain!"

"This Pokeball!"

"The book: _Magyk!_"

"Dwight!" yelled Charles, hoisting the teen up in the air.

Ellen told Charles to put him down. "Maybe later, but we might need him soon."

So, the two were ready for the bonfire.

And…Donovan had just trudged through a pile of Grimer that kept on screaming at him. (In Pokeish: WHAZ UP?) So, now he was going to the doughnut room.

Everything happened at once, and it was pretty funny!

Charles lit the pile on fire and Donovan walked in. Ralph and Natalie freaked out because they got busted and Ellen and Charles flew back against the couch when the bonfire made a small explosion. When the dust cleared…

There stood a weird-looking thing. It had two Googly Eyes, one plywood arm, two ear cleaners for legs, and electricity occasionally flickered across it's little doughnut antennas.

"WOOF!" it said in a low, demented voice, spitting out small pieces of paper.

Donovan looked at up at Ellen and a flash of confusion spread across his face. He shook his head and then looked at the creature. Suddenly, he look back up at her with awe and then pointed at the thing. "Hey!" he said. "You just created a new Pokémon! You're a genius!"

"Fuh?" asked Ellen dumbly.

"What do you call this new Pokémon?" he asked excitedly, stepping up to it and giving it a small kick. It babbled random phrases and then sneezed.

"My Humps," suggested Charles. "Dance, Dance. Dirty Little Secret. Whatshername. American Idiot. Anything."

"Err…E MC squared divided by the speed of strawberry pie, and, umm…" Donovan looked like a spastic, happy little kid on his first day of school. "Fish…meat…loaf…crunch. Yes. I dub it Feetloaf Crunch."

"Interesting," said Donovan excitedly. "We've needed a new Rocket Scientist with your potential for years now. Would you like to be promoted to Scientist?"

"Sure!"

"Great!" Donovan turned to the other three who were staring loathingly at Ellen. He frowned at them. "You three! Mirror B. will deal with you. Now, go back to your own floor!"

"Even if we have to walk through the pile of scary, messy Grimers?" asked Brandon timidly.

"Don't make me get the knives," he replied coolly.

Brandon screamed like a girl and ran out. "I'M SORRY! SORRY, SORRY, SORRY, SORRY, I PROMISE I WON'T ASK AGAIN! I'M A GOOD LITTLE GRUNT...!" And he screamed until his voice was drowned out by fits of 'WHAZ UP!' Natalie and Ralph followed glumly.

Donovan turned around to walk out the door while Ellen and Charles followed him. "You need training from the other scientists before you can begin Dr….er, what's your name?"

"Jennifer! And my Charmeleon is Francesca."

"Fine, Dr. Jennifer and 'Francesca'. The scientists are usually up at this time of morning. They work on the second floor of the building. I trust you know where that is?"

Ellen nodded her head.

"Good. I'll let you go for now, and if you have any trouble, call…" Donovan looked up into the air dreamily and stroked his chin. "MR. KYLER'S OFFICE! Doesn't that have a great ring to it? Oh, speaking of telephones, if you happen to call and hear a female voice…just make it clear your call is strictly business. My secretary Miss. Kirra tends gets jealous easily."

"Uh-huh," said Ellen, trying not to laugh.

Suddenly, Brandon came back!

"Can I use the bathroom?" asked Brandon.

"No," said Donovan angrily.

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"ALRIGHT! JUST GO FIND IT!"

"Oh, wait..." he grinned hysterically. "Never mind." And he walked away again.

Donovan narrowed his eyes and threw a knife after Brandon. There was the sound of a scream, a thud, and then Brandon's high-pitched voice saying: 'I'm okay! There's a knife in my hair but…I think I'll go to sleep for a while and…ughhh….zzzzzzz…"

"Idiot," he said as Donovan Jr. scampered up to the two of them. Ellen looked at the Pikachu and made a face. It growled at her. She flipped it off.

"Should I be going now so I can meet the Scientists?"

"You were supposed to leave ten minutes ago! Now MOVE!" And so, Ellen and Charles walked off to become scientists, and Feolan and Kyoshi had gone to help Houston and Michigan.

**And what about Feetloaf Crunch?**

After the group of people had left, Feetloaf Crunch walked around the room for a while on its thin, stubby legs, and then looked out the window.

"WOOF," it boomed, and felt the need to escape the Silph Co. and travel someplace where it would fit in. Feetloaf Crunch blinked and using its telescope-like vision, found the best place. "K- KO- KOGA- KOGA'S- NIN- JA- GY- GYM? KOGA'S NINJA GYM. KOGA'S NINJA GYM. KOGA'S NINJA GYM." And, seeing its new home, broke out of the window and flew off to Fuchsia City.

* * *

Now, review! Yeah, I was random today.


	20. Silph Part Four: Contionem Habere

ZOMG CHAPTER 20. WHOOT. YES! I AM SO PROUD. Plus…Rocket-break-in Chapters will be coming to an end soon…but not before more crap happens! (Of coarse, you may be able to tell when my writing gets a bit more…serious.)

P.S- My Birthday is on March 7…so…HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! YIPEE!

P.P.S- I do not own any songs written by Nirvana, nor do I own Pokemon, but I do own all my characters

P.P.P.S- Contionem Habere is Latin for _a meeting or rally_.

* * *

Rocket-Break-in Part 4

Contionem Habere

"Whoa," said Houston, "this warehouse seems to get bigger and bigger." The four Pokémon had just entered the room where several hundred Pokémon were being held and were now walking.

"No duh," muttered Feolan sarcastically, rolling his eyes. He looked through the bars of a huge cage into the eyes of a leering Ratata. "Hi," he said.

The rat suddenly screamed hysterically and pointed at the three Meowth. "OH MY MEW! CATS! DON'T LET EM' GET ME, DON'T LET EM' GET ME!"

Michigan sighed. "Ignore him. He always does that when we walk by. Always mumbling about 'too many cats;' I believe he's gone off the deep end."

"So what should we do about all the Pokémon?"

Houston looked dumbfounded. "Well, that's why I brought you here. I thought you could answer that for us." The Meowth sat down on the floor and looked upat Michigan. "Maybe Jefferson can help us out. I thought I saw him prowling around here after we freed him. Seems he knew the place well."

"Too well…" whispered Michigan. The brothers looked at each other. "How odd." The physic Meowth frowned and looked away.

"Quite," mumbled Houston.

'_Maybe we should find him,'_ Kyoshi suggested.

"Good show, ole girl," complimented Michigan. The group traveled along the cages until they came to the empty one in which the Meowths had escaped from. "Well, here we are."

Feolan looked around and then pointed upwards. "They're some windows up there. Maybe you guys can climb up the wall using your awesome cat reflexes."

"Er…Michigan and I were de-clawed when we were kittens."

Feolan slapped his forehead and growled. "OKAY THEN, WHAT ARE _WE_ SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?"

Seemingly out of nowhere, Jeff popped up from behind a cage of Seels. He looked at Kyoshi and Feolan.

"Hey…" he said slowly. "I remember you two. Kyoshi and Feolan, wasn't it?"

'_I should hope you remembered,'_ Kyoshi replied coolly. '_Since I've known you for all my life.'_

Jeff raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Hey! Kyoshi actually thinks. Wow, that's a new concept on her part."

"Lay off!" the Mightyena growled at him.

"Oh…and she has a bodyguard, too."

The two brothers rolled their eyes and held back Feolan from tearing up Jeff. "Remember what Alden said…" and the two prepared to do an imitation of the creaky old voice: "'Now don't be so mean to Jefferson, here. He's a temperamental Meowth.'"

"And he's gonna be a _dead_ Meowth when I'm done with him."

"Now Feolan…"

"SHUT UP!"

As he two brothers were trying to fend off the furious Feolan, Jeff snicked, crept behind the two, and slunk off into the darkness.

The Mightyena looked around. "Hey, where'd that damn little Meowth pimple go? I haven't killed him yet."

The group looked around. Indeed Jeff had crawled off.

"Fraidy Cat," spat the Mightyena. "Let's try and find him." He started off, but was stopped by Houston.

"Let the bloke run," he advised. "This warehouse if big enough for us to get lost in. We'll find him later."

"I still think he's a fraidy cat."

Michigan rolled his eyes, walked up to a cage filled with Noctowl, and unlocked the cage. With a flurry of hoots and one fell swoop of wings, the owls broke the glass and flew out the window.

As the small crystalline pieces fell upon the group, Michigan frowned. "Really," he muttered contemptuously, "and I thought those chaps would be kind enough to give us a ride out."

"Don't bet on it," Houston said. "We're lucky they didn't mistake us for dinner."

Feolan nodded. They sat there for a while, deciding on what to do as minutes, and finally hours passed them by. Finally, they fell asleep.

* * *

Ellen slipped the white coat over her Grunt uniform and fixed her hair into a ponytail. She turned to Charles. 

"Do I look Preppy Scientist enough?"

He studied her for a while. "Well actually…you look like a Smart Scientist. But what you _really_ want is CRAZY SCIENTIST! Like in the movies. So, you need to have something blow up next to you."

The Anti-Trainer gawked. "Huh?"

"You know, so you can look all crazy when you're covered in soot and cinders."

"Are you kidding me?" she yelled, the bathroom walls echoing. "No way! I'm going for Preppy Scientist!"

They looked at each other.

"Soooo…." Said Charles, "ready to go be smart and preppy?"

"As ready as you are to go make-out with Donovan Jr."

The Charmeleon torched her, but she poured cold water on his head, so they both sat down and cried, and hugged, and made up, and said they were sorry, and after Ellen had finished throwing away her burned lab coat and finding a new one, they went out the door and up the not-Grimered stairs to the Rocket Lab.

The Rocket Lab was a completely white, completely sterile; a fairly large room with long lab tables and small sinks. All around them Pokémon rested in all sorts in huge glass tubes, were confined in cages, or strapped to operating tables. A few scientists were milling about the room. Most of them had broken glasses fixed up with tape, pocket protectors, and were talking non-stop about Dungeons and Dragons.

"Wow," said Ellen. "It's so clean it's creepy."

"Cool!" said Charles, spilling a test tube of green liquid.

The girl walked around the room, blending in to the sea of white coats. She stopped at a random circular glass tube and looked inside of it.

"Hi," she whispered to the creature, pressing her nose against the glass. "I'm Jennifer."

"_And I don't have a name,"_ said the weird purple thing, eyes closed, totally silent.

"Really? You should meet my friend Charles." Stepping back from the glass, she called the Charmeleon over. "YO! COME SEE NO-NAME!"

"I'm right beside you, idiot."

She blushed. "I knew that. Now, No-Name, this is Charles, Charles, this is No-Name."

"_Hello Charles."_

"Er…" the Charmeleon paused, looking at the strange figure. "Hi. Er…so…how's life?"

"_Miserable. Really, you should try to kill nineteen Alakazams and see how you like it."_ The surreal voice had a sarcastic edge to it.

"_Weirdo_," thought Charles.

"_Hey…I heard that."_

"No fair! You can read minds!" Charles frowned and tried to think of nothing. He got a constipated look on his face, but it still didn't work.

"Yeah…" said Ellen slowly, "um…so. Please don't read my mind. If you do I'll explode."

"_Too late! Ha! Your name is Ellen, you are part of the Anti-Trainers, and your goal is to defeat Giovanni and Team Rocket."_

"BINGO!" SCREAMED CHARLES. AND ONCE AGAIN, FLAMEBOO FORGOT TO TURN OFF CAPS LOCK.

The girl pressed her nose against the glass again. "Please please please please don't tell anybody, okay?"

"_Right, I'm a good secret keeper. Not like anyone would believe me._"

"Acutally, I think some people wo-"

Ellen was interrupted by a short, blue-haired man wearing a lab coat who had walked up to her.

"Hey," he said, "don't stand to close to Mewtwo, it's dangerous." Ellen stepped back and nodded, raising her eyebrow. "It's a good thing you didn't get burned to a crisp like that last guy." He pointed over to a pile of ash on the other side of the room. "You must be a new scientist."

"Yup," she said proudly, "just call me Professor Jennifer!"

The man frowned and nodded. "My name is Will. Professor William H. Stanly."

"Can I call you Stan for short?"

"No."

"How about Prof Will?"

"No."

"Can I call you Professor Manly?"

"No."

"What's your middle name?"

"Harris."

"Professor Harry?"

"No."

"Harry Sotter?"

"No."

"Wet Willie?"

"AARRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHGGGGGG!" he shrieked, tugging at his blue hair. "Just…just call-me-WILL, okay!"

Ellen grinned. "Whatever you say…WILLIE."

Will blew a fuse, picked up Ellen, carried her over to a table, and dropped her on the floor. "HERE'S YOUR FIRST JOB. DISECT THIS LIVING MUDKIP AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS, OKAY?" He walked away as the entire room filed out and Ellen was left alone.

"Alright…STAN."

There was a huge mushroom cloud throughout the lab as Will blew up…but survived. Somewhere else in the building Donovan fell off the loft he was standing on due to the size of the blast. Mirror B. broke an ankle because he was disco-ing. Troy…well…Troy was with her husband at that moment, so nothing really happened.

Meanwhile Ellen jumped up off the ground and looked down. Clinging onto the table for dear life was a small Mudkip with huge, spastic eyes and a wide open mouth. It had six fingers on each hand. A polydactyl Mudkip.

Ellen began to worry. "I can't dissect him! I can't dissect anything. Ever since fourth grade when they made us dissect a Magicarp…" she started crying. "And no one believed that mine started talking to me…his name was Richard…I don't know what ever happened!"

"Get over it," spat Charles, jumping up on the table. "Okay dude, don't worry, we're-"

"OH MY MEW!" the Mudkip screamed, still cowering and crying. "DON'T HURT ME, DON'T HURT ME! OH SWEET HO-OH, SOMEBODY SAVE ME!"

"It's okay little guy," Ellen said, trying to shut him up. "Don't worry, be quiet, we're gonna set you free and-"

He suddenly gave them the most wonderful grin they had ever seen from a Pokémon. "That's great, miss! Gee, thanks! My name is Philip. You're my heroes, who ever you guys are!"

Ellen and Charles stared at each other, weirded out.

"Will you guys be my new friends?" he pressed, giggling hysterically. The Anti-Trainer was about to answer, but suddenly he resorted to crying insanely again.

"Is everything alright in there?" called Will's worried voice from far away. "We can sedate it if you'd like!"

"NO, WE'RE DOING JUST GREAT OVER HERE, JUST PEACHY KEEN!"

The girl opened a drawer of the table and pulled out a roll of masking-tape, stuck some over the Mudkip's mouth, and duck taped his paws and feet together. Philip was still wriggling spastically and sweating.

"There," she breathed, wiping her hands, "problem solved. Now, we can stuff him in the closet and-"

The Charmeleon stopped her. "Wait," he said heroically, pumping a fist in the air, "he can join us in our Anti-Trainer quest!"

Ellen thought for a moment before agreeing. "No shit," added Ellen. "Now, let's get this bi-polar Philip calmed down."

So, it began. First, they took him off the table, and took the duct tape off of him. He immediately started crying, and just when they were about to sedate him, switched over to happy-mode and hugged them both, then ran around on his pudgy legs and hugged everything else that was huggable. Then, just when he was hugging Mewtwo's confinement, Philip broke down crying again.

Charles sighed exasperatedly. "Alright, this is _not_ working. Let's move on to Plan B."

"BUT WE HAVE NO PLAN B!" Ellen screamed, pulling at her blond hair. "QUICK, LET'S STUFF HIM IN THE CLOSET!"

"_Wait a minute,_" thought Mewtwo, "_I think I can help. Let's make a deal. I talk to him and make him calm, and you press that big red button over there and free me. Deal?_"

"_Damn,"_ thought Ellen, "_can't get any better. Why not?_"

"_Great,"_ Mewtwo replied smugly. "_Leave Philip here for a while and come back in a few hours._" Mewtwo turned his attention to Philip as the others nodded and gave him a thumbs-up.

But just then, Will came up to them.

"Everything alright?"

Ellen and Charles looked at each other and moved in front of Phil. "Uhhhhhh…."

"Great," complimented Will, glancing at his wristwatch. "I think…um…we have a Press Conference tomorrow at about Five P.M or so, so we usually call it quits at about 3 in the morning and go to bed. It's 2:30 right now…think you can handle that?"

She shrugged. "I guess so."

Will gave her a thumbs-up and began to walk away. "Great," he said again, before disappearing behind a large computer. "Just follow me to the sleep quarters…"

And they did.

* * *

Meanwhile, Mewtwo was on to something. 

Since Philip had tried multiple times to run away, he was now pinned to the wall by the Pokémon's physic force. Of coarse, Mewtwo didn't blame him for trying to run.

"_Alright_," began Mewtwo calmly, "_do you have any friends?_"

"Uhhhh…..ummm….PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!"

"_Just answer my question."_

"No…I never have."

"_That's okay, because now you do._"

The Mudkip brightened suddenly. "Really?"

He smiled. "_Yes, really. Except I'm not your friend._"

"OH NO!" he began to cry and bawl away, writhing around in mid-air.

"_Shut up."_ Mewtwo slapped him physically. Philip whimpered. "_I'm your worst enemy. Sort of like Hitler. And the only way to survive is to stay with Ellen and Charles, the guys who just walked out of the room."_

He switched to Happy-Mode. "Hitler? Huh? Sounds like a nice guy, really."

"_Um…no. How about Agent Smith? Do you know him?"_

"Oh, oh, I know who that is!" A moment of silence passed as Mewtwo smiled. "IT'S A CHINESE FAST-FOOD RESTAURANT!"

* * *

The genetic Pokémon sighed. This was going to take a while. 

When Ellen and Charles woke up, daylight streamed through the small windows of the make-shift bedroom. The Anti-Trainer sat up groggily and looked at the clock positioned on the bedside table. It read 4:30 in the afternoon.

Ellen shook Charles roughly to wake him up. "Rise and shine, lazybutt. We have a press conference in thirty minutes, whatever a press conference is."

"Five more minutes mum…ugh…it'ssaturday…What? Huh?" The Charmeleon jumped up off the ground and looked around the room. "Oh right, we're still in Silph Co. For a second I thought I was back home on Mt. Ember."

"Hey Charles…"

"Yes?"

"What's a Press Conference?"

He thought for a minute. "I think…I think it's when humans get together and discuss something really important. Basically you have to go and take notes."

She shrugged. "Sounds okay to me. Let's go."

The two departed from the room and down a hallway, where they entered a lounge-type area. Inside the room was a clustered group of scientists, including the blue-haired Will, who was looking quite nervous. Ellen walked up to him.

"Everything okay?" she asked.

Will gave her a nervous glance and twitted his thumbs, blinking at a bodyguard-like Grunt who was standing at the doorway, looking menacingly at him. "You see that Grunt…? The one right next to the door?"

"Uh-huh…"

He leaned close to Ellen. "He's keeping me in here," he whispered.

"What?" The Anti-Trainer gave him a strange look as the two moved away from the Grunt.

"I'm not a Rocket!" Will blurted out quite suddenly. "I'm a hostage! I used to work at Silph Corporation, trying to find out a way to communicate with Pokémon. But now I have to figure out a way to make Master Balls totally flawless: make the Pokémon caught totally mindless. I can't do that! Tampering with the science of a Pokémon's mind is dangerous! I mean, look what happened to Mewtwo…and now we have to report to Giovanni in the press conference…"

Now it was Ellen's turned to be nervous. "WHAT?" she practically screamed. "We have to have a meeting with Giovanni? Why didn't you tell me that before?"

Will shrugged. "I just thought you wouldn't care. By the way, I'm supposed to give this notepad and pen to you so you can take notes…" he fished out a pen and pad out of his pocket and looked behind his shoulder. "Oh, looks like it's time to go. Well, follow me Jennifer." They started off. "And don't worry, I know you're nervous because it's your first time. But don't worry. You'll get used to it…sooner or later."

"Oh, thanks a bunch," muttered Ellen. "I'm sure I will."

The group traveled up many flights of stairs, through levels and into hallways. Soon, they stopped at a small square pad on the ground. One brave man stepped onto to and instantly disappeared.

Charles jumped. "Holy crap, what happened?"

Ellen asked Will.

"A teleportation pad," he said, a small smile tugging on his lips. "I invented them. They work like doorways. Everyone is connected to a certain level, which takes you there. If you want to go back, simply step back on the same tile."

"Brilliant," muttered the Charmeleon, as Will stepped up and disappeared. Charles gripped Ellen's shoe, and they both jumped on the pad at the same time.

They were speeding through abyss, a thousand miles per hour, until, quite suddenly, they stopped, sitting dazed on the ground in front of two Rocket Guards.

Rocket Guard 1 laughed gruffly. "Hey Deborah," he said to the other Rocket Guard.

"Yeah Joe?" asked the tough looking Deborah.

"We got a newbie here!"

The two laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world as Ellen walked by them, pausing only to kick the nearest guard, who happened to be Deborah.

The room small and the large table barely fit into it. Ellen took a seat next to Will and look in a cup that was at her place. "Mmmmm…coffee!"

"Complimentary coffee!" added Will. "Glad you made it. The Boss is usually a little late…"

Ellen sipped some coffee and gave some to Charles who was hiding under the table reading Playboy magazines he had found in the room. "So we call him The Boss?"

"If you want to live."

"How's about Mr. Giovanni?"

"Nuh-uh."

The Anti-Trainer grinned. "How about…_Gi-Gi?_" She giggled hysterically. Will looked around like a crazed rabbit and tried to shut Ellen up, but she continually chanted the words to the tune of _Smells like Teen Spirit_. "GI-GI! GI-GI! GI-GI! GI-GI! GI-GI! GI-GI! GI-GI! YEAH!"

Will slammed a hand over Ellen's mouth. "SHUT UP YOU IDIOT!" The girl finally sighed and got board of chanting, and then decided it would be fun to try and balance a spoon on her nose. It didn't work.

Finally, there was the sound of the Guards opening the doors of the room and Giovanni walked in, accompanied by Troy and Donovan, following behind him. All the scientists shut up and stopped talking about Dungeons and Dragons as Giovanni, his Persian, and the two highest Executives took their seats.

"Good Evening, everyone," Giovanni said simply. "I hope you are all working up to your expectations."

"Yes we have," all of them said in a monotonous tone.

"Right-o, Boss," Ellen recited in a mock-cheerful tenor. Everyone turned their heads to stare at her in shock and awe. She paled and looked down at the table, twiddling her thumbs. "Yes I have," she muttered.

"And who are you?" asked Troy, smiling at Ellen. "Are you the new scientist we hired?"

"Umm…yes. Scientist…Jennifer…pleased to make everyone's acquaintance."

"She created a new Pokémon, and I recruited her!" Donovan added brightly, grinning from ear to ear.

Giovanni rolled his eyes exasperatedly and rolled up the sleeve slightly of his black suit. "Very nice, Mr. Kyler. Wonderful. Now," he shifted the papers on the desk and held them up to read them. "The first order of attention…Terms of Science. All the scientists in this room must remember, and takes notes on this: Team Rocket is the most technologically advanced Corporation in the Kanto and Jhoto regions. We must keep up this status if wanting to continue to evade the police force which," he said with a small smile, "isn't very smart, so we have little worries about them."

Everyone nodded, and as the minutes passed by, Giovanni went on to explain the goals of Team Rocket (total world domination), the budget of Team Rocket (like, billions of dollars), and the status of Team Rocket (major bad-ass corporation.) As all this was going on, Ellen peeked over at a female scientist's notes. Instead, she was writing love poems. One went like this:

_Oh Giovanni I love you,_

_Oh Giovanni I do!_

_Whenever you are away,_

_My heart yearns for you!_

Ellen gagged and was prepared to slap the woman across the face, but grinned mentally a got a great idea. She was going to take her own _personal_ notes.

_Team Rocket's Crap_

_**Odes to Giovanni**:_

_Roses are red, violets are chunky,_

_Your mom was a hamster,_

_And you smell like a monkey._

_Roses are red, violets are Comet,_

_Oh god! Oh my!_

_Your face looks like vomit!_

**(Insert small drawling of a crudely drawn Charmeleon here. Also insert smiley face and flower.)**

_Roses are red, violets are tupid,_

_Your head is minuscule,_

_And you are stupid!_

**(Insert drawling of a stick figure Giovanni getting crushed by a Monster Truck that stick-figure Ellen is riding. Also insert stick figure Donovan getting impaled by one of his own knives. Also insert stick figure Troy being eaten by rabid Froot Loops)**

_Roses are red, violets are black,_

_I battled you at the Game Corner…_

_AND YOU RUINED MY FRICKIN BACK!_

_Roses are red, violets are orange,_

_Your brain is-_

_Wait…what rhymes with orange?_

_End of the Notes_

Ellen snickered happily and went back to listening to Giovanni, who was finally at the end of his long discussion.

"And finally…we need to keep an eye out for Anti-Trainers. Any questions?"

The Anti-Trainer who was right there immediately raised her hand. He nodded at her. "Do we have any…uh…_precautions_ against theses so called 'Anti-Trainers'?"

"We should have," muttered Giovanni furiously. "It would save me time, money, and energy. But sadly…" he turned to scowl at Donovan who shifted uneasily in his chair. "SOMEONE didn't destroy that Fiery Sapphire."

Ellen smiled and rolled her eyes. "Oh, that's a pity," she sighed. "That sucks. TOUGH SHIT," she exclaimed, grinning insanely and trying to hold back a laugh.

"Well," muttered Donovan, "_I_ wasn't the one at the Game Corner that night."

"Excuse me?" asked the Boss, his voice dangerously calm.

"I repeat myself: _I_ wasn't the one at the Game Corner that night."

"ARE YOU CONTRIDICTING ME?" Giovanni screamed wildly, his normally slicked back black hair flying out of place. "THERE WAS NOTHING I COULD DO!"

Donovan still looked cool and collected. "I'm just saying that you had your Pokémon. If you hadn't wasted time…"

"EXCUSE ME? _WASTED TIME?_" Giovanni stood up, sputtering madly. "The meeting is over! All of you, go back to your respective work stations!" He snapped his fingers. "Come Troy. My wife and I will be alone." And with one last glare at Donovan, he and Troy departed with Donovan slinking away.

Will looked thoroughly astonished after everything was over. "Wow. I've…I've never seen him get so…furious at one of his own employees…"

Ellen, meanwhile, was staring at the door Giovanni had just departed through. She blinked slowly. "Wi…Wi…Wife? WIFE? TROY HOBOTSON IS HIS FREAKING WIFE?"

"Uhhh…" stuttered Will looking at the girl, "sure, I guess…I mean, how does she stay at her place of First-in-Command? Easy, she's married to the Boss."

Charles began to laugh hysterically.

"Hey Will…"

"Yeah?"

"Do you have any Asprin?"

"Uh…yeah. Why?"

"After this event, I feel the need to get really high."

"Well, Asprin will probably kill you if you overdose. So…we always have sugar in the Lab…"

"Oh," she said, still dazed, "that's…that's great…I'll just take that for now…" And she stumbled away, still clutching the little note with the stick-figures and poems and humming the Gi-Gi version of _Smells like Teen Spirit_, followed by Charles and Will.

* * *

Mewtwo was worried. The plan had worked; Philip now trusted Ellen and Charles and was waiting patiently for them. But they had not come yet, and he was getting uncomfortable. What if they never came? 

And then he remembered. Ellen had been thinking about some kind of a press conference…perhaps she had gone there and forgotten. Yes, that was it. Some humans…

"Something wrong?" asked Philip quickly. "Maybe you should confide in me! Remember, you've got a friend in me…you've got a friend in me…when the road gets rough ahead…"

The Pokémon sighed and shook his head. Stupid Pokémon. Suddenly, though, he got a brilliant idea. Why didn't he think of it before? He turned to the Mudkip and directed him to push the large red button on the computer next to the glass tube. Philip, using his ambidexterity, climbed up onto the large keypad and pressed the button.

Abruptly the latches holding the prison broke and the glass door opened. The latches that held his arms and legs snapped off with ease as he floated out onto the ground. He nodded at Philip. "I think your friends are in the lab. Go see them there. I have…other business."

"What is it?" Phil asked sweetly.

Mewtwo turned to him and shrugged. "I don't know," he said simply, and in the blink of an eye, teleported away.

* * *

YES! FINISHED THE CHAPTER! WHOOTNESS! REVIEW! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! BYEEEEEEEEE! 


	21. Silph Part Five: The Truth and Planning

Whasabi? Ho-hum, ho-hum, I know what's gonna happen in this chapter and you don't! So, read why don't cha? And review while you're at it!

P.S- Special rating for this chapter! Ohhhh!

More cursing and more violence than expected! Owhohoho!

* * *

Fiery Sapphire

Chapter 21

The Truth and Planning

Late at night, Feolan woke with a start. The Meowths were already up too, all being nocturnal creatures, but it wasn't just because of that.

"Did you hear that?" asked Houston. "About a minute ago I heard a-"

"Crashing sound," finished Michigan.

Kyoshi sighed. "_You guys have to stop finishing each other sentences. It's really annoying_."

The brothers just shook their heads and smiled, walking away.

"Hey!" Feolan called to the two, catching up, "where are we going?"

"Jeff," said Houston simply, adjusting his small bowler cap. Feolan and Kyoshi shrugged and looked at each other. Might as well follow them.

The four started off and continued to walk along the halls for a while, looking behind cages and jumping over piles of rotten banana peels for the illusive Jefferson. Houston and Michigan kept the lead, occasionally fighting over who lead in the _very front_. Most of the time it ended up Houston. Soon though, they reached a dead end.

"Damnit!" yelled Feolan, punching the wall with his closed paw. "We're never gonna find that pimple _or_ get out of here!"

"Calm down, calm down…" Michigan looked up. "Arg…no windows…no stairs…I do believe we're stuck, my good brother."

"No kidding."

"So what should we do then?"

Houston held up apaw triumphantly. "We must retrace out steps!"

Everyone groaned.

"Oh come on," shouted Feolan, "think of a better way! What about the way we came in: the door?"

"Off limits," mumbled Michigan, dejected. "If we go out there the Rockets will see us…and get ourselves into even deeper trouble. It's no use. And with that crashing sound…"

"There could be danger." Houston explained.

Everyone groaned again. They were getting sick of the finishing of sentences.

But in the end, they decided to go along with Houston's idea of retracing their steps.

Bad idea.

Night had crept upon them, and without any sort of lighting, the warehouse was pitch black. Feolan and the two Brothers, even with their cat and Dark-type night vision, were still constantly bumping into things. The only one who wasn't was the Kyoshi: totally balanced, totally calm, walking like she was in sheer daylight.

"How does she do that?" whispered Feolan to Houston.

"Dunno," he whispered back. "Must be a Physic thing."

Suddenly the room was filled with a terrific booming noise as a huge thunderbolt lit up the entire area, casting flickering shadows upon the occupants.

"WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" screamed a random Jigglypuff.

"What was that?" Feolan yelped, jumping into the arms of Kyoshi. She dropped him on impulse. The room was lit by yet another thunderbolt, and the group jumped.

Michigan gulped audibly. "I dunno…but we shouldn't just be standing here, or face getting hit by that bloody lightening. Let's keep moving." And they did. The group ran through the winding room, as occasional booms of thunder shook the warehouse.

Suddenly, Kyoshi realized something. "_Guys…we're getting closer to the bolts. This is NOT good_."

The Physic Meowth was wrong. "No…" said Houston slowly, pricking his ears up, eyes narrowing slightly. "We aren't getting closer to the bolts…they're getting closer to us…"

"So? A freakin' Pikachu is on the loose," muttered Feolan. "We have nothing to worry abo-"

_BOOM._

_CRASH._

_MEOW._

The Mightyena blinked, confused. "Did I just hear a…a…meow?"

There was another hiss.

"_It's Jeff!"_ screamed Kyoshi mentally. "_He's in trouble!_" And with that, she took off running.

"WAIT UP!" The two Lake Brothers shot after her with Feolan in the back. She was a hard target to follow, but the flashes of lightning guided them. Suddenly, Houston ran smack into Kyoshi who was standing dead still. She was looking at something with awe in her bright eyes. As Feolan caught up, the three traced Kyoshi's line of sight and stared into the eyes of…

Jeff.

Riding a very familiar Tauros.

The bull lashed its three tails wildly and bucked, bellowing. Jeff didn't lose his calm personality; he simply held a paw in the air and sent down a thunderbolt onto the Tauros' back, which hushed the Pokémon immediately.

"So that's where the thunderbolts were coming from…" mused Michigan. "Jefferson, what…" he was at a loss for words.

The Meowth smirked and grabbed hold of his 'horse's horns, steadying himself. "I was born in Rocket Headquarters," he said, "the strongest one of the litter. I was trained a number of TMs." He held up his paw and produced a small crackle ofelectric energy. "I know more that you think."

"But that doesn't explain anything…" muttered Feolan. "That still leaves-"

"SHUT UP!" screamed Jeff, his furry face reddening. "JUST SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU! I'M SICK AND TIRED OF HEARING YOU OVER AND OVER AGAIN!" He pointed a shaking claw at The Lake Brothers. "AND YOU GUYS! YOU…YOU WERE ALWAYS SO…ANNOYING!" He suddenly stopped and had a brief coughing attack, but regained his stature.

Feolan growled at him. "There's no way you're gonna get away with this!"

"Oh yeah? And what if I said that the Tauros _and_ Team Rocket were alwayson my side; evenwhen I met Ellen? That was the whole reason the Tauros was killing Meowths: TRAINING TO KILL THE ONESWHO TRIED TO STOP TEAM ROCKET!"

There was silence. Dead silence. Only the sound of the Tauros' heavy breathing could be heard…until one _voice_ broke the entire silence.

"YOU BASTARD!" screamed Kyoshi. And suddenly she jumped up onto the back of the Tauros, extracting her claws. She tore into the surprised Jeff, who, with the agility of a Dodrio¸ parried the attack with a fierce Shadow Ball.

The Rocket Meowth was shocked. "Get off!" he yelled, frightened. He swung a fist at Kyoshi.

"NO!" she screamed back, and in blind rage, pushed Jeff off the Tauros and jumped upon him.

Free of his so-called 'capturer', the bull Pokémon gave a happy roar and charged off into the darkness, shaking the whole area as Feolan jumped nimbly out of the way to avoid being crushed. The Lake Brothers were frantic and looked at Jeff and Kyoshi who were engaged in a violent 'cat-fight'.

"We should do something to help Kyoshi!" Michigan exclaimed. Houston nodded, took off his tweed sweater, and handed his bowler hat to Feolan.

"Don't lose those." And he jumped in the fray.

The other brother looked at the Mightyena. "Well then we should do something to!" Feolan smiled despite the circumstance- he had a brilliant idea.

Meanwhile, Houston had turned to odds _against_ Kyoshi. With his clumsy attacking and blind Slashes, he had accidentally hit the Physic Meowth _twice_- but did manage to give Jeff a nasty black eye.

Kyoshi hissed and the air shimmered purple with Physic energy as Jefferson was hit with a beam of light directed from Kyoshi's Meowth Ore. The Rocket Meowth yowled and spat, flying through the air and crashing against a far away wall. The two others ran up to him to continue their attack.

"Kyoshi! You couldn't do that before!" exclaimed Houston. "Where'd you learn to do that?"

She shook her head. She didn't know, it had just…come to her. Suddenly her back legs bucked and she almost fell. She felt like she couldn't run anymore. Something was up, and it wasn't good.

Meanwhile, Feolan's plan was being executed. The two others had cornered the Tauros and were now coaxing it soothingly. Their plan- ride the Tauros over to the group, get Kyoshi and Houston away from Jeff, and run him over. Brutal, yes, but in desperate times like this…well…what could Feolan say? Um…Adora would be proud. Yup. That was good enough.

"It's alright…" murmured the British Meowth in a scared yet soft tone. "We just need to help us out and crush this bloke…"

"It'll be easy as pie," agreed Feolan, creeping closer to the bull. "And after words, we can go and all have some ice cream and cookies." Tauros snorted uneasily. As soon as he was close enough, the Mightyena jumped up on the bull's back and the Tauros bucked, but Feolan held fast as Michigan jumped on too. Now…steering the bull to them would be the hard part…

Kyoshi was the first one to reach Jeff, who had fallen to the ground limply. With surprising strength and brutality, she held him up by the neck against the wall. "WHY DID YOU DO THIS?" she screamed, tightening her grip for emphasis. "YOU RUINED MY LIFE!"

Jeff took a harsh breath, eyes staring blankly and made a choking noise in the back of his throat. "I'm…sorry I didn't know-"

"YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN, YOU BASTARD!"

"What are you talking about?" he rasped, struggling to get free. He was scared, and the Physic Meowth knew it. He was just a pawn in Team Rocket's attempt to control Kanto…

But suddenly Kyoshi began to cry, tearing spilling down unto the floor. "You killed everyone…everyone with that Tauros…MY WHOLE FAMILY!" she sobbed openly, slamming Jeff against the wall. "My mother…father…brothers…sisters…EVERYONE! WHY?" The aura of tension was broken and all that there was…was rage. Houston and Jeff's eyes widened in horror.

"Kyoshi, I didn't know," he coughed and spat up blood. "How was I to know…? I was just obeying orders…"

She wiped her tears away with her arm. "Damn you," she sobbed.

"It wasn't that bad!"

He gave her a pleading look and gripped her paws, trying to pry them off of his neck. "Fine, but let me tell you this: I was born a Rocket, and I'll die a Rocket." He showed pride, but just as Kyoshi was fusing up Physic energy for the fetal blow, he said quickly: "Wait! Don't kill me!"

"Why?"

He thought for a minute, but couldn't think of a good excuse…he was at a loss for words. "Because…because…um…"

Suddenly Kyoshi dropped her arm and let Jeff drop onto the floor. She turned away from him. "I wouldn't kill you anyway. I couldn't: it's not my nature." The Rocket Meowth let out a choked sigh of relief. At least he wouldn't die in the process of killing the others. Now…to deal with the Physic…

Kyoshi felt the presence of Jeff even before he launched a vicious Shadow Ball attack. Even though Physics were weak to Ghosts, they still had a sense, a sixth sense, almost, of the presence of danger.

She quickly parried it with a fierce Pay Day as the precious coins melted into molten gold, dripping onto the floor.

"I let you go, and you attack me?" cried Kyoshi sarcastically. "You're crazy. You may have been born a Rocket Meowth…but you'll die a traitor to your own kind."

"Bullshit," hissed Jeff. "And speaking of bulls, here comes the Tauros."

Indeed the bull was storming right at Kyoshi, bellowing madly as the terrified Feolan and Michigan were being tossed about on its back. But suddenly, with one final buck, the two heroic Pokémon were tossed off and sprawled out on the floor. Wide-eyed, Kyoshi jumped out of the way.

And was headed straight for the petrified Jeff.

He was paralyzed with fright, and like a statue stood in his place, watching as the Tauros lowered its head and pointed its horns…

_Crack._

_Stomp._

And with that, the bull ran off, finally free for the last time and enjoying it already.

The entire group was chaos, and Kyoshi and Houston ran up the twisted pile that once was Jeff. Houston looked at him but immediately turned away and threw up, sobbing. Meanwhile, Kyoshi continued to stay, staring at the bloody, misshapen mass. It twitched, and she gasped.

Jeff was still alive. Suddenly, weakly, he positioned himself upwards so that he could see Kyoshi. He opened he mouth, said something, and suddenly threw up blood. Then he slumped over, finally dead.

The Physic ran over to the Two Brothers who had grouped together and were sharing their horrifying experiences. The minutes Kyoshi got over to them, she slumped on the floor. He legs refused to move.

"Are you alright?" asked Houston quickly. "What did Jeff say? Is he…you know…dead?"

She nodded expressionlessly and threw herself into a hug with Houston. "He said…that he died a Rocket." The Brit nodded understandingly.

"S'okay. We'll get though this…Kyoshi? Kyoshi, you're glowing!" The Meowth blinked and looked at herself. Her fur, despite caked dirt and blood, was glowing intensely, and she backed away from Houston, smiling.

She felt herself changing.

And change was good.

Very good.

* * *

Will gasped audibly and sank to his knees.

"What…what happened to our lab?"

The Rocket Lab was thoroughly trashed, empty test tubes rolling across the floor and various liquids dripping from tables. The cage that once had contained Mewtwo was cracked and shattered, glass scattered across the floor. Etched on the wall was very neat handwriting.

_Mewtwo was here._

"Nice," whispered Charles, nudging Ellen on the leg. "Seems our genetic friend had some fun." The Charmeleon stopped. "But wait…where's Philip, then?"

Ellen and Charles were the first one to rush into the lab madly, turning over tables in search of the Mupkip. Finally they found him sitting in a corner, totally unharmed. When he saw the two, he ran up to the Anti-Trainer and gave her a huge hug.

"Hiya!" he said cheerily. "Where have ya been? I missed you two! Hey, can I be an Anti-Trainer too?"

Ellen knelt down and pried Phil off of her, totally shocked. "How'd you find that out?" she hissed, frowning.

The Pokémon giggled. "From Mewtwo, silly! Since he read your mind, he knows _everything_ about you now!"

"Oh no!" She gulped audibly. "_Everything?_ Even my deepest darkest secrets?"

"Yeaaahhhh…your deepest darkest! He knows that you kissed Gary Oak behind the bleachers of your school in kindergarten!"

"Damn him!" shouted Ellen. "That was supposed to be totally secret! What else did he tell you?"

Philip gave her a huge, sweet smile. "Well…he told me that you're an Anti-Trainer; all of your main goals; that your code name is Fiery Sapphire; that you're allergic to pickles; that your mom thinks you shouldn't become a Pokémon trainer; that you think Bill is totally-"

"Okay," said Ellen cheerily, slamming a hand over his mouth. Charles grinned. "I think we can stop right there. Now. We need to think of a way to get back to Feolan and Kyoshi, _and_ crash this place without getting killed. Let's put our heads together!" The three collided with an empty coconut sound.

"Ouch," Charles said, "that hurt, but I've got an idea to get back to Feolan and Kyoshi. Teleportation Pads!"

"Excellent, best buddy!" Philip slapped Charles a high five. The Charmeleon smiled. "You're really smart!"

Ellen rolled her eyes. "Seems Charles has found a new friend. Okay, any other ideas for the crash?"

The three thought for a while. "We could get Brandon to help," advised Charles again. "That way we're not fighting alone."

"What about Natalie and Ralph?" asked Ellen.

Charles pondered for a moment. "I…I don't know about them."

"They seem a little…suspicious. Do you think we can trust them?"

Suddenly Phil piped up. "Oh, those guys? I knew them! They were the ones who stole me in the first place. I was originally gonna be trained here, but Giovanni said I was too weak. Probably because I had a breakdown, spazzed, and started chewing off some random Grunt's face and he ran away screaming. Actually, I think Giovanni liked that, because he started laughing hysterically." He shrugged. "But I dunno. I heard them say something about stealing from the Team."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, backtrack there," said Ellen excitedly. "You said they tried to steal from Team Rocket? Did you hear anymore?"

"Uhh…yea…they said…they needed money and they would leave soon. But then some people stopped them from going up."

The Anti-Trainer snapped her fingers. "Ah-ha! So they're backstabbing the team!"

"Just like they said before," added Charles eagerly, nodding. Some of the scientists were beginning to come back into the room and inspecting the debris. "So we can trust them, right?"

Ellen nodded. "Sounds like it. Now let's get outta here and nab Feolan and Kyoshi."

Before they could stand up, Will walked over to them holding a broken beaker. "What are you _doing_?" he asked, eyeing her and the Pokémon. "We have a crisis on hand and you just sit in a corner with your Pokémon? The Boss is going to be furious with this! What are we going to do?" The scientist dropped the tube and wrung his hands desperately until Ellen put a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry," she reassured him. "We're going to get some paper towels to clean the spills up." The three began to walk towards the door as the scientist looked after them uncertainly. They _did_ look trustworthy…and they _were_ nice…

"You're gonna be back, right?" called Will after them, running to the door.

"Of course! We would never let you down!"

He grinned, relieved. "Thanks Jennifer. I can always count on you." Finally, he had found a friend!

As soon as the door closed behind her, Ellen sighed loudly. "Man," she said to Charles, "now I'm going to feel guilty."

He frowned at her as they looked for a Teleportation Pad. "Why?"

"I dunno…I feel like I'm letting Will down. He is a captive, anyway." She looked down at Philip who had begun to whistle a small tune. "And besides, he hasn't done anything harmful. He just has to do what he's told."

Suddenly Philip burst out into song. "_I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell, I know right now you-_"

Charles slammed his paw over the Mupkip's mouth. "I have a feeling I'm going to start doing this a lot," he sighed, waggling his fiery tail.

"You're my beeessssttt frrriiiieeeennnndddd," sang Phil, gathering the Charmeleon into a hug. "We've been though so much together. We're _tight_!"

"You don't know anything about me," he grumbled, moving closer to Ellen and away from Philip.

He winked. "Oh yes I do. Mewtwo told me everything!"

The other Pokémon groaned with displeasure and suddenly jumped up and ran forward. "Guys, a Teleporting-thingy!"

And so it was. Ellen looked at it uneasily. "How do we know where it goes? We could end up in a bathroom or something stupid like that."

"Hehe," whispered Phil. "You said 'bathroom'"

"SHUT UP!" screamed the Anti-Trainer, whacking him on the head. "Okay, Phil goes first because he's the most annoying."

"Ye verily!" Charles agreed, picking up the Mupkip and tossing him on the square. He zapped away, and Charles looked at his claws. "Cool! I didn't know I was _that_ strong. Macho Pokémon!" Ellen kicked him next and he zapped away, frowning.

Finally, she jumped herself.

They all appeared in what looked like a large empty room. Ellen scratched her head and looked around, wondering where Charles and Phil went. Finally, she spotted them over by some stairs and jogged up to them.

"Hey…" said Ellen slowly. "Isn't this the place we started out?" She looked around and confirmed her guess. "Wow…it is. How nostalgic!"

"The Grimers are gone," observed Charles casually, staring at a large puddle of left-over purple ooze.

Phil sniffed some and wrinkled his nose. "Ugh. Smells like the dead remains of a Sharpedo."

There was a very awkward silence until the Anti-Trainer spoke up. "Uh…how do you know what the remains of a Sharpedo smell like?"

Phil grinned evilly.

The other two looked at each other uncomfortably and left it at that, climbing up the stairs in hope of finding Feolan and Kyoshi.

* * *

Bye for now!

P.S- I am bored. _Skater dude, he's very rude, he's got an additude! Skater dude_!

P.P.S- My friend made that up.


	22. Silph Part Six: Discovered

Whuz-up? The chapter before the last for the Silph Co thing! Whoot! Well, see ya!

* * *

Chapter 22

Discovered

The three friends stood in the middle of a room, surrounded by doors on all sides. Thick metal beams supported the roof above them; dust floated through the air; and large, heavy windows allowed sunlight to beam through the room. Ellen closed her eyes, stuck out her hand, and spun around.

"My mother says to pick the very best one and you…are…IT!" Her gloved hand stopped at a very ordinary looking door. "Come on guys," she said, running over to the door and beckoning them. "My finger never lies. That's where Feolan and Kyoshi are."

They stepped into a large room, surrounded by cages, piles of rope, and general disarray.

"Yo?" called Ellen to know one it particular. "Is there a Feolan and Kyoshi here?"

"We don't even know if this is the right room," said Charles, eyeing the warehouse nervously. "Let's go check some other place."

Phil stopped him. "Give her a chance. Who knows- they really could be here!"

On cue, Feolan burst out from no where and ran up to them. He began to speak rapidly, not pausing between sentences. "HolycrapEllenI'msogladtoseeyou! Okay,someandKyoshimetupwiththeLakebrothersandthenJeffwashereandtheTaurosand-"

The Anti-Trainer kicked the Mightyena to shut him up. "Great. Now where's Kyoshi? We have to go and get Brandon and friends!"

Feolan looked behind him and wagged his tail. "She's right here."

Suddenly, a strange Persian popped up from behind a cage. She looked at Ellen and jumped out, slinking over to them.

"Hello," she said quietly. "It's me, Kyoshi. I just evolved."

"DUDE!" yelled Ellen. "YOU EVOLVED, AND YOU TALK! THAT'S AWSOME! How'd that happen?"

Feolan and Kyoshi gave them a brief summary of the event, and the departure of the Lake Brothers (via on the back of a Tauros). Ellen looked horrified afterwards. "Are you serious? And you never told us what happened?"

The Physic Persian shook her head. "I was struck dumb by the killing, no pun intended. I just couldn't speak."

"And that Jeff! That sonuva-"

"Let's not use obscenities," Kyoshi mumbled in her normal subdued tone. She looked down at Phil. "Who is that?"

"Guys," Ellen said, gesturing to the beaming Mupkip, "I give you our new team member, Philip!"

"How did you find him?"

Charles and Ellen gave told of the board meeting, the lab, and the finding of the Mupkip.

Kyoshi blinked at him, furry face still inexpressive. "How interesting, Philip. I'm sure it was frightening."

He winked at her. "Call me Phil for short." Phil turned to Ellen. "And don't worry Miss Sapphire- I'll be the best darnest Mupkip you've ever seen, I promise! Let's hug, everyone!" And he proceeded to hug everyone in the group. Charles rolled his eyes; Ellen screamed at him; Kyoshi took it without showing any emotion; and finally Feolan got really pissed off at him and pushed the Mupkip back.

"Lay off, wimp!" he yelled angrily. "Yo momma so stupid she tried to drown a Magicarp!" The Mightyena smirked at him as the little Pokémon whimpered slightly.

Suddenly, Phil burst out crying. Kyoshi immediately went to console him, and gave him as large a hug as she could muster. Philip continued to bawl and turned to Feolan. "My…MY MOMMY IS DEADDD!" he screamed, having a total fit.

Everyone starting yelling at Feolan who backed up against the wall, tail between his legs. Charles walked up to him and whapped him upside the head, and after Ellen gave him a good kick in the rear, she tried to go console Phil.

She knelt down next to him. "Hey…it's alright little guy. We'll get through this, don't worry."

It didn't seem to be working and the Mupkip continued to cry, not even stopping to look at the Anti-Trainer. Kyoshi now to had rock him back and forth like a baby to stop him from having a seizure. Ellen tried a different approach. Tickling! "Uh…um…goochy goochy goo…?" She put her hand out gingerly, but suddenly Phil looked up at her, thought she was going to still dissect him, and spat a huge jet-stream Water Gun at Ellen's head.

She screamed and jumped back, falling on the ground with a loud thump. Finally Phil giggled and pointed at Ellen. "Look at funny Miss Sapphire! She's wet! And she has brown hair!"

There was silence.

Slowly the Anti-Trainer clutched a tendril of hair and looked at it. It was her normal brown color. She looked at her Pokémon.

Ellen stuttered at first. "What…what are we gonna do now? I'm back to my normal self…I look exactly like I did before! They'll find me!" She stood up. "I'm trapped. Oh crap! There's no way that we can-"

"Jennifer? Er, Jennifer? What happened to your hair? And why are you crying?"

It was Will, walking around the corner to them. He clomped down the rest of the stairs and ran over to her. Ellen wiped the water from her face. "I'm not crying," she muttered. "My Mudkip just attacked me."

The blue-haired man looked at her. "You look…really, really wet. Is everything okay? Do you need help finding the paper towels? We need to hurry up."

Ellen laughed and looked at him. "I'm not even on the right floor, am I?"

Will shook his head, still confused why she suddenly had brown hair. Okay…weird. "No, the towels are upstairs. And anyway, we can't worry about the things anymore, we have a bigger problem. The Boss heard about Mewtwo's escape, and he's coming down for an inspection. All scientists need to be present, including you."

"I can't come."

He frowned and eyed her suspiciously. "Why not? I mean, your hair is wet…and a different color…but that won't change anything. Come on, we got to get up there." Will started to walk away, but Ellen stayed put until he turned around again and sighed loudly. "Okay, what's up? I know something wrong."

"Don't tell him," warned Feolan. "He's a Rocket scientist!"

Ellen quickly brushed her question aside and began to walk away. "Nothing, really, it's fine. I…I just need to…" she eyed and pointed to her Pokémon. "Put _these_ experiments in a confined area."

"Experiments?" questioned Will.

"Yeah. Look at this Mightyena," she pointed to Feolan, "he's albino. And that Persian; she's a mix of Abra and Meowth. The Mupkip you know from before. The Charmeleon…uh…he's…well…"

Charles looked hurt and sunk his head.

"Yes…?" Will began to get anxious and was constantly checking the time on his watch. "It doesn't matter; we can lock them in a broom closet. We need to get back up to the lab. We're already late, and we can't be any later." He fumbled around in coat pocket and finally tossed her a set of keys. "There's a closet on the floor of the Lab. They can stay there."

It seemed that Ellen had no choice but to follow Will up to the Lab and attend the meeting- without her own Pokémon. As the scientist turned around and they were walking up, Ellen had a word with Charles.

"Sorry," she muttered to her friend. "It was a desperate attempt."

He hastily grunted in reply.

"Come on, Charles…" She waited. "_It's not my fault_."

"How many times have I heard that from you? I _never_ seem to do anything. Feolan battles Donovan Jr. on the S.S Anne. Kyoshi stops you from giving up at the Game Corner and kicks Jeff's butt. Phil frees Mewtwo, for Mew's sake! I'm…just Charles."

"Aww, come on, we don't need to get all sentimental."

"I'm not! I'm angry!" Charles growled, making a small fist with his claws. "_SEE?_ _ANGRY! AT YOU!_ _FOR BEING A STUPID DUMBASS JERK!_"

Ellen was at a loss for words, and by the time the group had reached the lab and closet, and the Anti-Trainer was locking the door, the two were as far apart as could be.

Ellen handed Will the keys and he pocketed them, looking in the Lab window. He cringed a bit. "They look like their waiting for us."

"Well, let's not make em' wait any longer," answered Ellen, and surprisingly, was the first one to open the door.

The Lab was fairly crowded, but still left a large open space for the two to enter. The group of Rockets was on one side of the Lab, surveying the damage while a handful of hostages from Silph Co were cowering in the corner. Ellen wondered if there were more.

Suddenly, Giovanni stepped from the dense crowd, grimacing at Will and Ellen. He was in his normal attire- a black suit and tie, oily black hair, and completing the Boss, his own Persian standing faithfully by his side.

Ellen squirmed nervously under pressure. "Er…we're sorry about the delay, Boss. The errand took us longer than we expected."

He raised his eyebrow as if looking for a better answer. "That's no excuse for you to come looking like you just dunked your head in a bucket of water. What were you doing anyway?"

"Dangerous things…" muttered Will eerily, a shadow casting across his face. "Involving…_paper…towels…_"

Giovanni must have thought Will had gone a little mad, because he backed up a few steps and turned again to the crowd of scientists and executives; ready to set off on a tangent again. Ellen and Will melded in with the crowd as the Boss began his speech.

"Rocket Scientists," he began, pacing back and forth across the floor, "you have…disappointed me. Disappointed me to the point in which some of you will have to be _fired._"

There were several audible gasps from the crowd.

"Ohhh, I'm scared," muttered Ellen sarcastically.

Her blue-haired friend shook his head. "Not like that. No one can be really 'fired' from Team Rocket. Then the person can tip the police off. Firing…its…well, it's bad."

"What happens?"

"Well, it-"

"Scientist," Giovanni said suddenly, inclining his head at Will. "I believe you are known as Professor William?"

Will nodded.

"You certainly seem a bit chatty this night with Professor Jennifer."

"Sorry," he muttered, sinking his head. "I'll be quiet."

Giovanni dismissed the idea. "Really, carry on…but before you do, I have a question. Is it not true that Professor Jennifer and yourself were the last ones to leave the Lab when it was untouched and still contained Mewtwo?"

"I guess that's what happened," he sighed.

"Of course, we had nothing to do with the destruction. It was all done when we were attending the board meeting," Ellen quickly put in. "We didn't see it until we came back."

"Really?" asked the Boss in feigned surprise, staring at the Anti-Trainer. A flash of recognition spread across his eyes. "That's a pity. Perhaps you two should tell me more about the event after the meeting." He turned around. "Mr. Amando, will you please accompany the two scientists up to the _Silph Co._ board room?"

"Sure, sir," answered a voice, and suddenly a spiky red-haired boy stepped out from the crowd, wearing a new suit. He looked about Ellen's age and was a short little dude, only up to about her shoulder and slightly pudgy. He looked…too familiar.

Giovanni gestured to the teen. "Scientists, this is the new Second-in-Command, Mr. Curt Amando. He will be escorting you to the tenth floor."

Curt nodded; a look of dead seriousness on his face.

"Good. Well, I'll be seeing you two." The Boss still glared at Ellen, apparently trying to figure out who the hell she was. Jennifer or Ellen? Rocket or Anti-Trainer? Friend or Foe?

The doors closed behind them, and Ellen glanced nervously at the walk-in closet. She couldn't go back now, considering the mysterious Curt was now there with them. All she could do was walk until they reached a teleportation pad.

"Ladies first," Curt said in a deep voice.

They had entered the eighth floor.

Will looked nervous. "Are we in trouble?" he asked in a squeaky voice. "Are we going to be…you know, _fired?_"

The executive shrugged. "I dunno," he remarked, turning to Ellen. "Hi, I'm Curt. What's your name?"

"Jennifer."

Curt nodded, smiling a little bit. "Aha. You know, I believe we met on the S. S Anne." He winked at her heavily.

"What the crap?" she asked. He sighed and turned to Will.

"I used to use hair dye, too, ya know," he said, grinning at Ellen again. "But I needed to wash it out to _help somebody_."

Suddenly it all clicked. "_Ba…BRANDON?_" she practically screamed. Curt jumped and made a slicing motion with his hand across his neck. He had red hair beneath all that white!

Will gave them both strange looks. "Uh…what are you guys talking about?"

"Nothing that concerns you," said Brandon. "But we need to take a little detour. Actually, it's a really, really big detour. We need to go up to the Boss's office and grab the blueprints for the Master Ball."

"Why?" asked Will.

"Shut up," replied Ellen.

"You can't talk to me like that!"

"Yeah I can!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-huh!"

"GUYS! SHUT UP! SOMETHING COMING UP ON MY PHONE!"

Brandon quickly drew a small compact cell phone out of his pocket and turned up the volume. Through the crackling a buzzing of the device, audible words could be heard.

An unknown voice, probably a higher-ranked Grunt's, jumped to life. "_Uh…to anyone who's listening…I was up next to the Lab, cleaning, and uh…I know this'll be hard to believe, but…some Pokémon were hiding in the broom closet. A Charmeleon…a Persian…a Mudkip…oh! And a really cool-looking Albino Mightyena! Uh…I don't know who's these belong to…I'll take 'em up to the boss's office. Out."_

Everything moved so quickly from then on.

"MY POKÉMON!" Ellen screamed, grabbing Brandon's arm. "OH MY MEW! Come on, we need to get up to the twelfth floor!" The Anti-Trainer began to sprint across the room, but her friend pulled her back.

"Are you crazy?" Brandon asked. "Everybody heard that call! Including the Boss!"

"So? What can we do?"

"I'm confused!" wailed Will pathetically.

"There's nothing we can do! We're screwed!"

"Shut up!" Ellen cried, slapping Brandon across the face. "This is a desperate situation! Listen, if we move fast enough and get up to Giovanni's office in time, we can get my Pokémon from the Grunt!"

"But how long will it take Giovanni to put two and two together?"

The Anti-Trainer shook her head. "Not long. He was already suspicious. Now let's go!"

Brandon rolled his eyes but obeyed, running along side Ellen and Will. "Boss told me how to get to his office. I think I remember the way…"

"YOU BETTER!"

There was the ringing of a cell phone, and Brandon once again dug into his pocket and pulled out his walkie-talkie/phone.

"Hello?" he huffed, and suddenly held the phone an arm-length from his ear as muffled yelling could be heard from the device. Words that rhymed with 'duck', 'hamn' and 'witch' could be frequently heard.

Finally, Brandon clicked it off. "Giovanni is a quick learner," he said wearily.

* * *

Man, did I spend some time revising this. Way too much! It was like, crazy nutso! Anyway, happy belated April Fools Day. Sorry I didn't update sooner, I was to busy cracking jokes with friends and tricking my mom into believing the computer was broken. (It worked…) And ha…while my bro was playing Gamecube, I took all of his Pokémon cards and hid them under my bed, and then taped a sign to his door saying Team Rocket stole all of his Pokémon. (It, obviously, didn't work, but it got a few laughs out of IddamSoyt, whose stories you should read! Well, last chapter of Silph Co coming soon! Tootles! 


	23. Silph Part Seven: Destroyed by Life

This is the last of the Silph Co. Special. Thank you all for following along, and let's see how little Ellen fairs in the last chapter…

* * *

Fiery Sapphire

Chapter 23

Destroyed by Life

"So…wait a second. _How_ did you get to be second-in-command?"

The group was running now— actually sprinting, with a few stumbles here and there. Will would occasionally ask questions that Ellen and Brendan ignored completely, but after quite a while of this he learned to stay quiet. There were only a few Grunts on every floor; (it being very late at night), but despite strange looks they sent at the trio, no Grunt would even _try_ to stop two tall scientists and a regal executive.

"It was…odd, and quite fortunate," panted Brendan, answering Ellen's question. "I was…wretchedly confined in the Detention Room with those idiots Ralph and Natalie, when Ralph's walkie-talkie reported that Donovan was moved down a rank. Word does get around."

"No shit," replied the Anti-Trainer, her head bobbing as she shed her lab coat, only wearing her Grunt uniform. "Giovanni seemed pretty mad at him."

"Really? Ah. Anyway, they said they were letting eligible Grunts try out for the job…the only reason I was to join was because I had intelligence. I had a bad feeling that Miror B. was going to obtain the position, but…" Brendan smiled slightly. "When I saw him, I realized that I had the job."

Ellen made an odd motion with her hand. "Wait! Lemme guess. Since you're, like, a super-smart professor, they let you in. Yeah."

"True, true," answered Brendan, suddenly grabbing hold of Will and Ellen's arms and jerking them to a stop in front of a teleportation pad. "Here we are. This starts the only way to the Boss's Room."

There was silence, until Brendan turned to Ellen and leaned over to her, whispering, "We can go back…if you'd like. You seem so frightened— and you look like a ghost."

"Nuh uh," Ellen muttered, swallowing the bile that was slowly rising in her throat. No! She couldn't be scared! _No_! He was just a human. He was old, at least forty-five. She could overpower him…right? "Let's go."

Will became suspicious of the little chat, and said over Brendan's whispering, "I suppose _you_ know why we're going to the Boss's room?"

She snapped to attention, blinking. "Uh…yeah. I guess. Uh— well, um—"

They zapped away on the teleportation pad, ending up in an unfamiliar room. "Where to next?" asked Will as they entered on an unknown floor. "And might I ask for the fourth time— Why exactly are we going to the Boss's room?"

"For the forth time," muttered Brendan absentmindedly, looking around for the other teleportation pad, intellectual brow furrowed. "Where in the hell is it…?"

Ellen twitched and fiddled with her necklace under her shirt, growing impatient and nervous. She looked around the room, itching to get to the next floor. Goddamn, she could turn back. She could just leave. She could just leave her Pokémon—

_WHAT THE HELL._ The young Anti-Trainer cursed herself mentally. What was she thinking…leaving her Pokémon behind! They were family to her! Was fear…consuming her in some way? She could hear Brendan mumbling to himself and Will following the boy around, probing him questions.

Finally, Brendan cried triumphantly: "Here's the teleportation pad!"

The Anti-Trainer ran over to them and was the first to jump on it, zipping away followed by the two others.

* * *

"LET ME GO!" roared Charles, overcome by rage. He was ferociously kicking his stubby legs as the muscled Grunt who was holding him laughed at his pathetic attempt to break free. The other Pokémon were being held by each of their respective Grunts, walking up to the highest floor. The Charmeleon squirmed in the Rocket's grasp and half-turned to Feolan.

"Feolan," he called, "we need to find Ellen!"

"Duh!" the Mightyena growled back, his throat partially crushed by the iron grip of his Grunt. "I heard she was going up to Gio-" he gasped for breath, "-vanni's room!"

"But he's following them," Kyoshi in a surprising worried tone, both she and her Grunt peaceful. It was as if her aura relaxed, calmed. "He's going to get there before us."

Charles looked at her with shock, but also in respect…and admiration. The Persian was just…he shook his head, concentrating on the conversation at hand. "Kyoshi, you're…if I may be rude…showing emotion. Since when did you start doing that?"

The Persian blinked at him, frowning. "Since my friend was in danger of dying. _Wretchedly_."

That was enough for Charles. He tore into a vicious string of attacks, roaring and screaming as he kicked and clawed and exhaled small flames onto the Grunt, who shrieked in surprise. "_Shit_!" screamed the Grunt, looking at his burnt arm with disgust and clamping the Chameleon's mouth shut. "Damn, this idiot is going to burn down the whole building! Why'd _I_ have to get the violent one?"

A female Grunt glared at him and held a crying Phil out at arm's length. "At least _you_ don't have to worry about a…_mentally unstable_ Pokémon!"

"Man," grumbled Feolan, retching, "if we get out of this alive, we need to go get some smoothes or beer or SOMETHING!"

"Perk up, Feolan," sniffled Phil, wiping his nose of the Grunt's sleeve and leaving some disgusting phlegm-like residue. "Let's be optimistic! We can make it through, team! Right?"

Kyoshi sighed, still upset. "If you say so, Phil…I only wish I could predict the future…or maybe change it. Then we'd know what to do."

"mmmmfbleeeeg," eagerly agreed Charles in a garbled voice, prying at the hand that was blocking his mouth. What he really meant to say was: "We don't need predictions. We can figure this out ourselves."

"We don't need predictions. We can figure this out ourselves," said Phil cheerfully.

"mmmmffleegggsdssss!" the Charmeleon said angrily. _Hey, I was gonna say that!_

"I wonder what Charles is saying," Kyoshi mused.

"MMMMDDDDLLLLEEEEEEGGGGIIII!" _I'm saying that you all are deaf dumbasses!_

"Oh well. Let's try and make a plan," said Feolan.

"mmm?" _Doesn't anyone need me?_

"Oh, oh, I know! We can use my Water Gun to drown the Rockets and the EARTH WILL EXPLODE, leaving us to control the OUTER UNIVERSE AND THE 34729TH DIMENSION!"

"Pfft! Phil, that's the stupidest idea I've ever heard."

"mmummmhuuumm." _Hello? I feel so underappreciated…_

"Alright, any other plans?"

"MMMHHUUU? MUH? Mmmm!" _ISN'T ANYONE LISTENING TO ME_!

But no one answered.

They didn't hear.

* * *

They were all standing there, cowering against the wall, looking at the three with wide, frightened eyes. Some of them began to cuss at them while others shrank back, other shook their fist, and others exchanged quiet whispers.

It was a mass of the hostage Silph Co. employees.

Will stood there, gaping at them with utmost surprise and…grief? He seemed to be frozen in mid-sentence, his movement impeded by some force. Ellen peeked around his should and first looked at him; and then the group.

"Uh…?" she asked quietly, implying without speech. Even through Ellen was quite tall; she still had to strain to see over her scientist friend's shoulder. "You know these guys?"

All Will could do was nod as a man, hesitating, stepped out from the crowd.

"All right, what do you want?" he asked, taking time to cuss them furiously, and so much that even Ellen was surprised. "You've done a bloody lot already, I'll give you that. Oh ho, and look at this…" his face twisted in a mocking smile. "Will has become _one of you, too_." He pointed at the blue-haired man accusingly.

"It's…it's not like that…" Will managed out in a horse, childish whisper. "I was forced to… I didn't want to do it…"

"That's what _everybody_ says," remarked a woman, rolling her eyes.

"Traitor," hissed a young man acidly. "Criminal!"

Ellen looked from Will, to the crowd, and back to Will again. He looked hurt; saddened by the betrayal he had done to his own coworkers. And…the coworkers seemed violent, and possibly threatening to them. But the trio couldn't waste time! Giovanni was hunting them, now, tracking down the next Anti-Trainer he could slaughter!

Without thinking, Ellen stood beside Will, and said timidly, "I'm not really a Rocket."

"Oh, ha-ha," Accusing Man laughed bitterly. "Good one—"

"I'm an Anti-Trainer."

Everything stopped. Will whipped his head to stare at her, shocked. The crowd quieted down, still unsure if she was truly an Anti-Trainer, or simply a Rocket toying with them. There were many mutters and mumbled issuing from the crowd, and Will shook his head. "Jennifer…or, whoever you are. I never guessed. That's why you're so frightened—"

"I'm Ellen. Or Fiery Sapphire, whatever works better. And, yeah, I'm helluva scared right now." She sighed, scratching her head and looking to the floor. "The other Anti-Trainers told me to…to get Team Rocket out. So I'm tryin', but I'm not doin' so well…"

"You seem to be carrying out the mission well, comrade." Ellen faced the unknown voice to see a relatively older man standing a bit away, the girl frowning slightly.

"Uh…_thanks_?" she managed to spit out, dumbfounded. "You…um…familiar with us or something?"

He nodded and shrugged. "More or less. I was an Anti-Trainer for about a year; when it was a newer movement."

"_What_…?" An odd, inexplicable feeling of happiness sprung up in Ellen, and she couldn't help but smile. One could guess that it was the joy of meeting kin in the most dire situations— one could guess that it was the feeling of relief that there were more than just the little ground in Cerulean. Whatever it was, the younger Anti-Trainer felt a small sprig of hope. "You're an _Anti-Trainer_! No- no way! Hey, did you know Russell? He's old now, and really grumpy. And Marylyn? She gets drunk a lot. And—"

"You're new to this, aren't you?" the man muttered, loud enough so Ellen could hear and understand that she should quiet.

"Uh, sort of. I already went into the Celadon Rocket Headquarters, and Giovanni was there and his Rhydon and—" she suddenly quieted, remembering the painful experience. "And we, uh, had a battle."

Old Anti-Trainer raised his eyebrows sympathetically. "Hardly fair, was it?" She nodded her head, and he continued, "Well…yeah. That's why I quit being an Anti-Trainer. We were picking fights with Rockets, and that was when Giovanni liked to be a part of his Team— not just sitting on a dais and being the stupid totalitarian ruler. He shot me in the leg, right at the nerve. So, I have a limp, and now I'm just some scientist who works in Silph Co."

Ellen winced. "Sorry about tha—" she was cut off as Brendan impatiently tugged on her arm, glowering at her and then offering a polite smile to the Old Anti-Trainer.

"Oh, dear, I'm _so_ sorry to break up this touching meeting between elder and the 'new life of tomorrow', or something, but we really do need to leave. Sweet Ellen has seemly forgotten that Giovanni could be anticipating her blood on the floor right at this very moment. Now is a good time to continue on. Unless, Ellen, you were hoping to be killed…?"

"Damnit!" Color drained from the girl's face, and she was instantly brought back to reality. She addressed Old Anti-Trainer in a goodbye. "Shit, I could talk to you longer, but, uh, you just heard Brendan. We _gotta_ leave, okay? Yeah. So, I might die or something, so have a nice life. Bye."

As she wheeled around, she called to Will that they were leaving and quickly tugged on his arm. But he stopped her and said, "wait." Will turned to Ellen and rubbed the back of his head, thinking. He had a bright look in his eye, but was still somber. "I feel _very_ bad about all this. It's hard to explain. I'm…just _sorry_ that I left my coworkers behind. I guess sorry for succumbing to Team Rocket, mostly. I'll bring the employees down to safety. I know enough back routs through the building to get there in secrecy."

"My Mew, you're insane, man," declared Brendan bombastically. "But you're very noble. I respect you."

"Yeah," Ellen agreed. "Ditto."

Will smiled at them. "Thanks, guys…I suppose some of this is because of you two—"

"_Boss, hot on our trail, going to rip Ellen apart! Going to slay us_! _Blood, glorious blood!_" Brendan sang nervously, Will getting the idea. The scientist nodded and shuffled the crowd out.

A cheer erupted through the crowd as one by one; they filed out onto the teleportation pad. As Ellen and Brendan were walking away, the last thing they heard was Old Anti-Trainer saying, "Comrade, stay safe."

After the group had left; Brendan and Ellen stepped up to the teleportation pad. "That's the last one," Brendan said.

"Whadya mean?"

"We get to the boss's office after this."

"Ohhhh," said Ellen slowly. "Right." She paused. "Let's get this over with."

They both jumped onto the square and were zipped away to the top floor, where a hallway awaited them, leading to the office/board room. Two tired guards stood outside the door, looking around.

Brendan sighed deeply, straightening his tie so that he appeared the least bit presentable. "I'll go first," he concluded, and straightened up, walking over to the two. "Hello there," he purred cordially. A master of manners, the slyest of them all. "Having a nice shift, I trust?"

"If a nice shift is staying up at two o'clock in the morning, then yeah," grumbled Deborah, the guard from before. "Whadya want?"

The boy looked around the corner and signaled Ellen to come out into the open. "My associate and I would like access to the Boss' office, if you so _please_."

"Yup," added the Anti-Trainer, her voice quavering a bit. "We have a meeting with the Boss. I don't know if he's here yet…"

The Grunts threw them both skeptical looks and crowded around each other, whispering in hushed voices. Occasionally they would throw deceiving glances at the two and smirk, only to replace it with a frown seconds later. The two broke from their discussion and were about to decide when the office doors zoomed open.

"What's going on?" asked Giovanni angrily. He looked out from the door frame, eyes shifting to the confused Brendan, and_...Fiery Sapphire_, looking terrified "I've been waiting in my office for hours for that Anti-Trainer to come and—" he stopped and looked at Ellen again, mouth crawling into a smile. "Oh. It seems little Fiery Sapphire decided to find _me_ instead. Not very clever, are you? Grunts; take them and escort them to my office." The two Rockets grabbed Ellen and Brendan's arms, jerking them behind their backs so that shots of pain ran through the limbs. Ellen had to admit, gritting her teeth— Deborah was very strong.

The young Anti-Trainer cursed, confused._ Giovanni had beaten them up to the office? But…Ellen's mind whirled, when she suddenly found the answer. Of course, he probably knew a shorter way._ She suddenly jerked about and flew at Deborah with a kick, but missed her target and ended up just stumbling. "Damnit! Brendan, help!"

"Do I look like I can?" the boy growled.

The Grunts jerked them into the small room and viciously tossed them only the floor, exiting and closing the doors. Giovanni sat at his desk, regarding them with a slightly victorious, slightly curious expression. He made sure to grin at Ellen, silently telling her that _he did indeed win_. The girl scowled and administered an obscene gesture. On the desk a roll of blue paper sat. _The blueprints._

"It's been quite awhile," he said casually, pushing back his chair and standing up. Ellen suddenly noticed a roll of blue paper sitting on the desk. _The blueprints._ "Though, I believe it was only two days ago that we battled."

"Somethin' like that," growled Ellen. If only she could reach the blueprints and rip them up…without getting killed, of course. She sat up.

"You're looking better," the Boss continued, slowly advancing on them with calculated distance. "Not as _dead_ as I last saw you. Hmm?" He looked at Brendan. "Who's this, than? Curt? Or, what is your real name?"

Furious at being regarded aside, Brendan rumbled shrilly, "I, _sir_, am Brendan Birch, and you, _sir_, are a complete and utter bastard."

Ellen contemplated killing herself at that very time. But Giovanni only laughed, smoothing back his elegantly slicked hair. "I've heard much worse, believe me. And from scum the same level as _you_…_sir_. Or should I say m'am?" His eyebrows raised in mockery. "And I say that with a bit of false pretense, because the scum were Anti-Trainers."

Both Brendan and Ellen were inflamed, Brendan with the horrible verbal attack, Ellen for the protection of her friend. Immediately the girl rose to her feet, fists curled at her sides. "You goddamn bastard…you say _one more_—"

Once she was close enough, the Boss simply seized one of her arms and twisted it backwards, causing it to throb in pain. Ellen hissed, clenching her teeth. "ENOUGH," Giovanni boomed. "Now, tell me, Fiery Sapphire. Time for a bit of question and answer. What did you hear at the board meeting? Anything important?"

Ellen mumbled incoherently, fretful, and the Boss growled menacingly.

"Hmm, speak up Fiery Sapphire; tell me. That was a 'heroic' attempt to try and blend in with the Grunts; the scientists, too. But breaking into my office— you've gone to far, you little bitch. Now tell me— _What…did…you…hear_?"

"I wasn't paying attention!" she retorted, trying to wrench her arm away. "And I didn't take anything!" Her eyes flicked to the desk again. Perhaps she could have Brendan run over and snatch them while Giovanni was preoccupied! The Anti-Trainer flipped her heel back in order to nudge Brendan and convey attention, but ended up hitting the boy hard on the head, knocking him out instantly.

_'Well, that's just great',_ thought Ellen, as the Boss decided it was best just to garrote her to extract information.

"Tell me," he menaced furiously, constricting his large hands around the Anti-Trainer's throat with so much force that Ellen already felt a lack of oxygen. She felt lightheaded— were her lips blue tinted? Was her face a sickly gray?

"_No…_," she gasped. Her legs shook with fear until they were useless, but Giovanni's brutal grip forced her to stay upright. "_I…didn't…hear…_anything. _I…was too…busy…_" she trailed off.

The Boss' hands tightened. "You were too busy doing _WHAT_?"

With grotesque and desperate strength, Ellen turned to look at Giovanni and grin insanely at him, suddenly reverting to a scowl. "_Too…busy…CUSSING YOU OUT,_" she rasped, and thrashed out her fist to connect with his jaw. Giovanni lost hold of her throat and in a frantic attempt, seized her necklace. For the second he looked at it, he seemed surprised— and then with a click, it snapped off and flew across the room.

The Boss still stood there; staring into thin air. In his weak moment, the Anti-Trainer swung her fist out to punch and connected with Giovanni's eye, sending him reeling back. The girl's eyes widened. She had a _chance_. A cry of fury from Giovanni rang out as Ellen ran towards the desk and tripped over Brendan's limp body. She fell and her head rammed into the corner of desk, pushing it a bit across the floor and knocking the blueprints down to the ground, where they landed on her head with a small _plunk_.

"_Yes_!" she hissed, grabbing the blueprints, head trickling blood. She spread the plans out, gazing madly at them. The power of the world! The power to control! Giovanni's power! Dead! _Destroy it_! Intricate designs and lines spanned the page, and she quickly began to tear the paper into strips, ripping them up with shaking fingers. She could vaguely hear Giovanni screaming behind her; yelling a Pokémon's name…she was almost finished ripping the paper up fully.

They were mere shreds when there was terrific roar behind her. Her blood curdled with just the sound; Ellen looked up to see a huge, bipedal monster towering above her. The Rhydon pulled back its lips to reveal jagged incisors, raising its claw over its head to smash it upon her, cracking her bones. But that never did happen, as the girl shrieked and bodily threw herself out of range, shaking. The Pokémon's claw came down upon the desk, bursting it into chunks of wood and splinters.

Giovanni then began to curse rapidly in Italian, shielding his face as large chunks of wood bombarded him. Upon seeing this, Ellen couldn't help laugh at him-- he stared at her, face turning hostile-- but she continued laugh, now shrilly and madly. "_You're finished_!" she howled. "_Finished_!" Suddenly, a commotion struck up from behind the doors of the office. There was a terrific yelling; a crashing snarl; a howl; hissing and spitting. Frightened screams suddenly erupted. Rhydon's attention turned to the door, cocking its head a bit and forgetting about Ellen; intent on listening to the mysterious disaster occurring outside the office.

"IGNORE THE SCREAMING!" roared Giovanni, his dark eyes maniacal. He was breathing heavily and a twisted green vein pulsed in his neck. "KILL HER! _KILL FIERY SAPPHIRE_!"

Rhydon shook its mighty head and swung its tail around, colliding with Ellen and sending her frail body skidding across the floor, eventually violently slamming into the opposite wall. Blood spurted from her nose as her face connected with the wall. She was no longer laughing.

The Boss, slightly disturbed by her insane outbreak, strolled up to her body but nevertheless kept a fair distance away. "You're going to die, Fiery Sapphire," he said coolly. "You may be a child, but you've been acquainted with adult matters. And now you're going to pay, because I'm going to kill you myself." With that he stepped forward and seized her hair, pulling her up by her scalp so that she faced him, although she continued to slump against the wall. She really was a macabre picture-- blood had coated the lower half of her face, a huge bruise crawled over her forehead, and her throat was fraught with finger-shaped bruises.

_Fine_, the Anti-Trainer thought bitterly, _I'm gonna to die. I'm gonna die. Good riddance, Giovanni. You can't get me when I'm dead._

The next events happen so quickly, they almost seemed a dream. Giovanni kicked her, although she could only jerk backwards and yelp thickly and scream curses, thrashing madly. Rhydon, captivated by the screaming prey, brought its claw to rip across her arm, tearing it down to muscle. _Holy shit_. Ellen fought tears threatening to come, but she succumbed. It was too much to hide in a situation as this one. She would break down. She would reveal weakness. _Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry._ The phrase was like a benediction. _Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry._ _What ever you do, don't cry._ _Don't even think about_-

The Anti-Trainer's face twisted in agony, tears dripping onto the floor. She released a sob.

Giovanni grinned and reached for her neck, intending to snap it. He admitted that he would be kinder to a child in killing-- when one's neck is snapped, the pain ends instantly.

Yet, in the worst possible moment that could ever occur, the doors flew open and a Grunt stumbled into the room, his face a mask of pain. He clutched the doorframe, retching blood and bile. "Sir…"

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?" the Boss screamed, wheeling around to face the young man in determined anger. He paled when he saw the Grunt's state.

"Sir," the Grunt gasped again, choking back a wheezing cough.

"_What_...?" he whispered.

He shook his head. "Can't…keep them…down…I'm…sorry…sir…" With that, he slouched on the ground; most likely dead, revealing a thoroughly scalded torso and back.

The next moment, there was a terrific roar. Giovanni stood, still holding the blood-clotted mass of Ellen's hair, and very slowly, an expression of pure shock crossed his face as he stared at the door. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he stayed mute.

Suddenly, a huge Charizard threw through the doors, spewing white-hot fire everywhere. He was crazed with rage, howling and roaring in all of his pure draconian might. His wings were so large that they did not fit through the doorway, and as just as he was making his entry, his wings caught and the Charizard was sent spiraling into the Rhydon where they both sat in a tangled heap on the floor. Another group entered consisting of an albino Mightyena, a Persian, and a Mudkip.

They were all obviously Charles, Feolan, Kyoshi, and Phil.

The Boss released Ellen, and she sunk to the floor, staring at her Pokemon through glassy eyes. She managed a smile and rasped, "_Even though...I might die...you'll die too_."

"Oh, Ellen, don't say that!" Kyoshi trotted forward, careful to stay away from Giovanni. She lay at her Anti-Trainer's head, licking the blood away from her forehead.

"That was only _one_ of my Pokémon," Giovanni growled, answering Ellen's question. But his voice was worried, not the usual force prickling it. "You've forgotten the others."

Charles growled. "Forget _this_," he said, pushing the wounded Rhydon away and stomping over to Giovanni. The man slowly stepped back, but the dragon grabbed the Boss's collar and lifted him so that he was at eye level. The Boss gasped from lack of oxygen, gritting his teeth. "You…are…an…evil…man," snarled the Charizard, murder in his heart. He could tear the Boss's head off right then-- there. _Now_. He could end Giovanni's life. But he was a sympathetic personality, a personality that would cost him dearly in months to come. He simply snarled, "and…if…you…_ever_…_EVER_ try and kill Ellen again, I'll kill you. With that, he let the man fall to the ground, and Charles swooped over to Ellen.

"Oh no..." he groaned, once the full extend of damage to Ellen became clear. He shook his head slowly in distress, running a gentle claw across her cheek. The claw returned bloody. "You poor, poor..." he trailed off, anxiously looking at Kyoshi. She returned his gaze with an equally sad one. Both of them knew that as the most mature of the group, they had to protect the smaller, the less mature ones.

"Gee willikens, Ellen!" Phil squealed. "You don't look so hot!" Everyone glared at him.

"_No_--" she gasped harshly, slowly bringing herself to a sitting position. "No, I'm..._fine_...I'm fine." The Anti-Trainer's eyes traveled over to the corner where something sparkled very faintly. Her necklace.

"You're lying," Charles accused harshly, checking behind him to see that Giovanni was still lying on the floor. Evidently, the dragon had choked him violently. He still couldn't control his power. "Quick, I'll fly all of us away--"

"NO!" she said shrilly, eyes wide. "My necklace! I need to get my necklace!" She began shaking, almost as if she was in shock.

Feolan's ears flattened against his head angrily. "Holy shit, Ellen! It's just a necklace! What would you rather have; your life or that damn necklace?"

She ignored his question and slowly, carefully stood up, limbs shaking slightly. One hand on the wall, she began stumbling to the corner, breathing raggedly. _Necklace._ The only thing she had that was home. _Necklace_. Fiery Sapphire; FS. It was _her, _it was _she_. The very essence. The girl was so intent that she did not notice Giovanni slowly creeping towards her, and before the Pokemon could utter warnings-- Giovanni made one last attempt at victory and grabbed a sharp piece of stray wood, brandishing it like a knife and aiming to jam it into Ellen's leg. A roar from Charles interrupted this action, as the Boss slowly brought the wood down and dropped it with a _plunk _onto the floor. He didn't know what that Charizard had been snarling about, but it sounded ominous.

The Anti-Trainer scooped the necklace up, cradling it gently in her palm. She put it on again, frowning when she saw the FS. The S had been dented a bit. "Hey, Ellen," asked Phil from across the room, bounding to her so that he could be a _bit _of protection against the Boss. "What should we do about Giovanni?"

"Dunno," answered Ellen tiredly as Charles kept a sharp eye on the man. She then turned and leered at the Boss, smiling slightly. "Maybe we should kill him-- and let's make it gristly and gross. Heh..." Her Pokemon became slightly discomforted by their Anti-Trainer's cruel quip.

But Giovanni wasn't, and began applauding her. "Bravo, Fiery Sapphire. You're adapting nicely to the little game of Team Rocket versus Anti-Trainers. I doubt you'll ever get to do that, though." He stood, his right eye beginning to bruise from Ellen's punch. He flicked out a Pokéball onto the floor to reveal a gray pterodactyl of some sort, muscled and vicious. "Fiery Sapphire," he mounted the Aerodactyl and ascended into the air. "I have a feeling we'll meet again, elsewhere."

Ellen smirked, a dark chuckle in her throat. "No, really? This won't be over until one of us gives up."

"Or dies," Giovanni pointed out, eyebrows raising in amusement. He flew above Ellen and the Pokémon's heads, staring down at them. "I could kill you right now, you know," he lied, seeing if his enemy would stray away from her Pokemon-- _than_ he could kill her.

She snorted. "Leave, bastard."

The Boss shrugged and swooped to one of the windows, his Aerodactyl ramming against it with her head. "Fine. But don't let life destroy you when I'm gone-- it'll be no fun killing you if you're miserable and lifeless! I've been destroyed by life; don't allow it to happen to you! Otherwise, we'll both die! And that'd be no fun..." And with that, the glass broke and he broke into the gray skies, disappearing out of sight.

There was silence for a moment before Ellen shook her head, feeling a great sense of fatigue wash over her. She sat down, hunching over slightly. Brendan's body lay beside her, still unresponsive. "Shall I try to wake him up?" Kyoshi asked timidly, trying to swerve Ellen's thoughts away from Giovanni. The girl nodded; the Persian concentrated on the boy's palpable consciousness and molded it until Brendan shifted slightly groaning.

"Ah...ah...Ellen..." he opened his eyes, blinking tiredly. The boy writer sat up, staring at the group. "What? It's over...? Did we win?"

"Maybe," the girl replied bluntly. Brendan saw her and frowned, understanding.

"You're alive, that's all that matters," he said sagely, putting an arm around her. He sighed. "Giovanni-- a bastard. He...he hated me for what I was. For why I was different. And you-- because you're an Anti-Trainer..."

"I...suppose it's the price one pays," Charles said sadly. "For being an Anti-Trainer, I mean."

"Is it really _that_ bad?" Feolan asked shakily. "I mean...is this what were going to have to go through for..._our lives_?"

"No...our lives," Ellen moaned. "Our lives! He said I was a child-- I can't go through with this all by life!" She began shaking again; Brendan recoiled in fear. "My head hurts...my arm hurts..._so much_..." She began to cry, burrowing her head in the nearest creature, who happened to be the soft and caring Kyoshi.

"Waterworks," Feolan mumbled, rolling his eyes. But he did manage to pat Ellen on the shoulder and give her a friendly, doggy lick.

"I'm fine, I'm fine…" Fiery Sapphire gasped, and merely seconds later, she slumped backwards, unconscious.

* * *

Somewhere between the space of awareness and oblivion, Ellen was thinking, and thinking mightily. She knew that her arm hurt deeply...and he head, as well...but she felt a sense of happiness crawling upon her. She had survived, and she had retaliated. She had made it known that she was _not_ just a pawn; she was strong and angry and a fierce Anti-Trainer. Although she wasn't sure if making it known was a good thing.

She needed to ask the Anti-Trainers some questions that needed to be answered…more about Team Rocket...more about the Anti-Trainers...she would have to contact Russell. But that would have to wait. Now, all she could do was stay with her friends and wait-- For now, she was just glad the Silph mission was over, and she had survived.

Barely.

She knew that vicious times were going to occur in the future, and dear reader, Ellen was horribly right. She knew about Gym Leader battles…the Elite Four…Raquaza…the Rockets...

She knew that hard decisions were in the future-- would she tell Fredia about the Anti-Trainers? Would she continue being an Anti-Trainer? What if she actually _did_ die? What if Giovanni actually _did _kill her? What would Fredia think?

Humph. What a stupid question.

And, finally, she knew that sometime in the future she would have to have a last battle with Giovanni-- the two enemies would fight for both life and death, victory and defeat. Ellen didn't know what would happen, or when it would occur, but she would be ready. Her friends would be ready. The Anti-Trainers would be ready. Her Pokémon would be ready. Why?

Because she was Fiery Sapphire.

Yes, she would be ready.

Or so she thought.

End of the Rocket-Break-In Special

* * *

A year ago, on April 28, 2005, a girl was playing her FireRed Pokémon Game on a porch. She was thoroughly bored, and needed something to do besides Game Boy. Suddenly, as her character was walking through Celadon City, something struck her.

_What if there was a group of people who didn't _want_ to be trainers?_

So, she turned off her game and started jotting down notes on a piece of blank paper.

To make a long story short, she wrote the first chapter.

And the rest is history.

Yup, a year ago, Fiery Sapphire was written on the same computer I'm using now, began as a comedy that was tweaked with action, horror, etcetera. But I'd be nothing without the following people (and things)

My reviewers, Pokémon games, and Fanfiction.

Well, that's the end of my monologue. The Silph Co ending will be described in the next chapter, along with the finding of Mr. Silph, how the evolution of Charles came to be, and other crap!

Goodbye; and this is Flameboo reminding you to…REVIEW!

P.S- Roughly 1,200 people have viewed my story, and only 37 reviews! Think about how that makes me feel:-(

**(Updated note, ** **June 24, 2007****: Shit. I'm ecstatic that I've received this many reviews! It seems like yesterday that I was saddened that I didn't have 40 reviews…and now…WOW! Thank you, everyone!) **


	24. You Shouldn't Forget

Sup? Alright, here's the scoop:

IF YOU DIDN'T READ CHAPTER 23, READ IT NOW, OR ELSE THIS CHAPTER WILL _NOT_ MAKE ANY SENSE. GOT IT? GOT IT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!

Good.

Hey, review! REVIEW! REVIEW! I am assaulting your mind with subliminal messages…

REVIEW…READ…ENJOY…THANKS FOR REVIEWS…CHEESE IS DELICIOUS…BYE!

P.S- I don't own Pokemon. I own all my characters. I don't own Taco Bell. GOT IT?

* * *

Chapter 24

Fiery Sapphire

_Ellen was listening to the sound of wind blowing through a window; the sound of breathing; the sound of utter silence. Her eyes were closed, mostly out of fear, but tentively, carefully, she peeked open her eyes._

_But she wasn't in Silph Co anymore; she was at her home in Fuchsia sitting in her original living room. Her mother sat next to her in a large armchair, staring at Ellen._

_"You haven't called me lately," Fredia said, frowning slightly, turning to face her fully. Her face was different now, lined with age, her features unclear. "It gets awfully lonely here without your dad around."_

_This comment struck her. Her mother almost never spoke about her dad; only twice had she heard the word uttered. She wanted to say something comforting, but something strange shook Ellen to say, "But he's been gone for almost eight years, mom…"_

_"You shouldn't forget him." She seemed stern now, almost mad at her daughter. "You shouldn't," she repeated. "You shouldn't."_

_"I'm sorry. And I'm sorry I haven't called. It's just…things have been really busy with Pokémon training. It's a lot to do, you know, collecting badges, fighting trainers, and catching Pokémon. That always takes time up."_

_"Liar," Fredia suddenly spat icily. The Anti-Trainer stood abruptly and backed up, almost knocking a table over. This was not the mom she knew. Her mother sunk her head, sobbing. "I'm all alone in this house…no one…and then you'll go…and-"_

_"Mom, what are you taking about?"_

_She continued crying, ignoring Ellen's question. Her hands were placed over her face and her words come out muffled. "You'll leave…and…and then I'll…I'll go too…and…and…" she was shaking now. "There would be no one left; no one left in this house…All dead…"_

_That was it. The Anti-Trainer grabbed the doorknob and swung the front door open, careening through doorway. Her mother's last words echoed through her head._

_"YOU SHOULDN'T FORGET!"_

_The scenery outside changed from to a hazy, unclear place. Nothing was solid; nothing was certain, but Ellen still ran across the floor, sprinting until suddenly, she collided with something hard and wall-like; which, undoubtedly, turned out to be a wall. The Anti-Trainer dropped to the ground, hitting the floor with a jolt. She groaned and fell down on her stomach, sighing and closing her eyes._

_Loud footsteps echoed through the room, so loud as if the person had no intention of being silent. Ellen's eyes were still closed and she paid no attention to the sound._

_Where were Charles and Feolan, Kyoshi and Phil? Where was she? This place was unfamiliar as ever to the Anti-Trainer. For a brief second, a wave of fear overcame her. Something told her she should be running; hiding, away from this room, anything._

_The footsteps moved closer, but the teen didn't mind. Surprisingly, it was quite comfortable lying on the floor._

_Suddenly she felt something like cold, hard metal press against her scalp. She tensed up._

_"Don't move."_

_She snapped to attention. That voice was too familiar. Deep, smooth, unassailable, and threatening; if anything. There was the sound of something metallic clicking into place. A trigger. A gun. A gun at her head. Oh my god._

_Giovanni, his face twisted with anger, greeted her when she opened her eyes.His eyebrows raised in silent amusement._

"_Get away from me, you bastard," she hissed, trying to stand up. The Boss of Team Rocket brought his foot down on her back, impeding her from moving._

_He glared at her horribly, eyes beaming, a small, iniquitous smile tugging at his lips. "Goodbye, Fiery Sapphire."_

_He pulled the trigger and watched the bullet fire._

_A flood of memories rushed back to Ellen. Running…a group of Silph Co hostages…Silph Corporation…the guards…Giovanni…Brandon fainting…strangling…the blueprints…a Rhydon…Charizard…Aerodactyl…necklace…Fiery Sapphire…kill…Fiery Sapphire…kill her…Fiery Sapphire…_

"_KILL FIERY SAPPHIRE!"_

_"_I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"

Ellen's scream echoed through the top floor of the Silph Co. building, ringing for a second in her ears. It had been a dream. She was drenched in a cold sweat. "No…no…" The Anti-Trainer murmured, looking around. "Just a dream…"

Everything in the top floor was exactly the same; a pile of wood splinters that once was a desk until a Rhydon destroyed it; the large window was open that Giovanni used to make his hasty retreat on an Aerodactyl; and the Anti-Trainer felt the exact same.

It was then she noticed her Pokémon milling around the room, pointing at things. Feolan and Phil were whispering to each other, Kyoshi was staring blankly at the desk; Charles sniffing the air suspiciously. The large Charizard looked at Ellen and bounded over to her, anxious.

"Ellen," he said in a worried tone, "What happen? You were sort of thrashing in your sleep. Did you have a bad dream?"

The girl frowned and looked down at her worn and scratched Grunt uniform. "No. A nightmare. Anything happen while I was out?"

"Was it scary? Did it have Giovanni in it? I bet it did."

"Both yes. Anything happen while I was out?"

"What…you mean here?"

"Yeah," the Anti-Trainer said impatiently. Charles was acting strange. He seemed overly concerned.

He shook his head. "Nothing much. We've just been up here, waiting for someone realize that all the Rockets left and-"

"The Rockets left?" interrupted Ellen, surprised. "In just two minutes? But…huh…what about Natalie and Ralph? And Will? And Brandon?"

"You saw Giovanni. He was a mess. And a black eye! Ellen. I don't know the Rockets very well, but I would be pretty worried if I saw my boss in that state. Never mind about the others, Will is probably alright…and Brandon went down for some help. I don't know about the other two, though."

"You kick ass, Charles and Ellen!" Feolan shouted from across the room, pumping a paw in the air. "Dude, you should of seen that Charmeleon, beatin' up those Rockets! It was beast, yo. And then, he got all shiny, and was all like 'hey! Let's go bust Giovanni's ass!' and I was all like 'yeah!' And he evolved!"

Charles frowned, rolled his eyes, and flexed his right wing, scratching his bony head with it. "Er…I didn't say that…Ellen is the one who should be thanked, because-"

There was a terrific banging noise from an armoire in the corner of the room, completely untouched. The piece of furniture shook and rattled, almost tipping over. The group looked at it, wide-eyed. All the Pokémon turned to Ellen, and there was silence.

"Open it," finally whispered Kyoshi, narrowing her glassy eyes. The Persian tensed.

The girl slowly stood up, still very shaky from the battle impact. Crossing the room, there were distinct sounds of commotion on the lower floors. It sounded like people were…cheering, or something.

Ellen gripped the door handles, closed her eyes, and yanked the doors open, stepping back. Dust poured out of the armoire, and there was the sound of coughing. Suddenly a man emerged from the closet. He looked quite old, a long, ragged beard covering his chin; and wearing a dusty suit.

As soon as he saw the Anti-Trainer, he hugged her.

"Holy shit!" she exclaimed, trying to tug the man off of her; but he paid her no attention.

"Oh thank you! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!" cried the man, laughing hysterically. "You saved Silph Corporation! You saved hundreds of Pokémon! You saved ME! You would have saved my secretary, too, but I had to eat her because I ran out of food a year ago."

Ellen took a few steps back. "Who _are_ you?"

The man grinned and shook his head, sending clouds of dust scattering across the room. "My dear girl, I'm terribly sorry for not introducing myself. I am Mr. Silph, president and founder of the Silph Corporation! Silph Co. used to be for the good of Pokémon and humankind, but unfortunately about five years ago the Rockets captured the building and their 'dastardly' Boss stuffed me in this closet." Mr. Silph shrugged. "I suppose he thought I would die. But I didn't!" He waved a triumphant finger in the air. "And who might you be?"

"I'm Ellen," the Anti-Trainer said slowly, trying to work this all through her head, "so…wait. _You're _Mr. Silph?"

"The one and only."

"And you were stuck in that armoire the whole time?"

"Yes."

"_Then why didn't you help me out?"_

The man grimaced. "I was locked in. I'm sorry, I just couldn't do anything. If they're anything I can help you with now, though…"

"Yeah," said Ellen quickly, "can you? People down on the lowers floors are gonna think I'm a Rocket." She gestured to her uniform.

The man looked startled. "NONESENSE!" he boomed and Phil jumped in the air, yelping. "I heard EVERYTHING! The confrontation, the fight, the desk being destroyed…yada, yada. You, my good friend, risked your life for our company and I am backing you up one-hundred percent! Besides," he added firmly, "people won't be suspicious when they see what kind of damage you've taken."

"That's a relief. Thanks."

He smiled. "It's nothing. Now, shall we go downstairs?"

Ellen started for the door with her Pokémon while Mr. Silph followed suit; but suddenly the man stopped and made a small 'hmm' noise.

"Hmm," he said obviously.

"Something wrong?" asked Feolan, knowing well that the man couldn't understand him. "Something wrong, Fatty McUglyface?"

"_Feolan_," chastised Kyoshi in a sharper tone than normal, "that's no way to treat the president of a major corporation!"

"Whatever," he retorted simply.

"Hmm," Mr. Silph, repeated, catching up to the group. "Ellen, I don't mean to be nosy, but…er…you've got a rather large hole in the back of your shirt, and I couldn't help but noticing…however did you get those scars?"

"Scars?" Ellen managed to choke out, eyes widening. "They're still there?" She came to a dead-stop, Feolan ramming into her from behind and falling on the ground.

"Er…I suppose…" he paused. "I didn't mean to offend you," he started quickly, fumbling with a button on his ratty suit. "Just curious."

The girl needed to think of something to say, and _fast_. "Uh, it's okay. Just, um, playing soccer one day and uh…a girl used her cleats to..." she stopped dead. There was no use even explaining. "Never mind. It's nothing."

That day, the Anti-Trainer realized something. Those scars, those battle marks would never go away. No matter how hard she tried, they would always be there, reminding her. Or telling her to press on, encouraging her. Either one, this journey was no child's play.

"Nothing…Well, alright." He resumed his normal walking speed, but still, there was an air of curiosity in the room.

* * *

When they reached the seventh floor, a blue-haired man was sitting on a desk, drumming his fingers against the wood. He wore a lab coat, not the usual sterile white Ellen was so used to, but slightly torn up and dirty. When the group entered, his face lit up brightly. 

"Hey, _Jeni_- Ellen!" Will yelled happily, running over to them and giving the Anti-Trainer a pat on the back. "You did it! You saved the company! By Mew, you should have seen it; I tell you, the Rockets were scattering like Pidgey through the building! It was _amazing_! And-" He stopped suddenly and looked up at the man standing next to Ellen. He paused and took a sharp intake of breath.

"Mr. Silph." he asked, "Is that you?"

"In the flesh, Will," he answered jovially, putting his hands behind his back. "My, I haven't seen you for at least five years. How were things whilst I was gone?"

The scientist looked uncertain. "Er…Silph co. fell into poverty and destruction when the Rockets took over; several scientists were forced to work for them; and-"

"Jolly good," he said absentmindedly, examining a set of pens on the desk. "I do feel like taking a shower right now." Mr. Silph rubbed his long beard. "In fact, I believe that I'll take one now. Oh, Ellen, by the way, thank you again. After my shower we can attend to rewards. Perhaps a Master Ball?" He paused. "Well, I'm off to shave! Goodbye!"

"Great," muttered Ellen, as Mr. Silph had left the floor, "just what I needed! A Master Ball! Just what I _don't_ want to use!"

"Why? Master Balls are the most high-tech Pokémon catchers in all of the four regions. Literally the best," explained Will, hinting at the words, 'the best.' He looked a bit hurt.

"Don't you remember? I'm an Anti-Trainer. There're only two things I'm against: one, Rockets, and two, catching Pokémon with Master Balls. I dunno…what I really need is a Silph Scope for the Pokémon Tower."

"Oh!" the blue-haired man exclaimed brightly, producing a ring of keys from his pocket, "I can get you one of those! They're stored on the second floor."

Ellen gave him a thumbs-up. "Great. Hey, but before we get one, can I see Brandon?"

"Brandon?"

She had forgotten Will had never known who he was. "Brandon. He was Curt before; red hair; short; a bit on the pudgy side…"

"Oh sure," Will realized, snapping his fingers, "He's downstairs somewhere. I'll meet you on the second floor. Deal?"

"Deal," she replied, hobbling downstairs.

* * *

When she finally found him, Brandon was in the bathroom on the third floor. The _women's_ bathroom, to be exact. When Ellen entered, the boy screamed like a girl and shrank up against the wall, cowering. 

"Oh," mumbled Kyoshi coolly, "she doesn't look that bad."

"Oh...um…Ellen! Heh…What a surprise! Yeh…what are you doing here?" he stuttered, laughing nervously. The boy was still dressed in the traditional Grunt uniform.

"What the hell are you doing in the women's bathroom?"

Brandon scratched the back of his head and pointed to his scalp, which was soaking wet and tinged an eerie whitish-red color. "Well, the men's bathroom was locked, so…I went to dye my hair white again in here. I'm making progress, as you can see."

Ellen nodded and walked over to him as the boy relaxed a bit and went back to his hair dying, which consisted of dunking his head numerous times in a sink full of milky white water.

She sauntered over to another mirror and peered in it, seeing the full extent of the fight. A year ago, she would have probably died from the impact of such a clash, but now, in the early months of fall, she knew how to hold on; to not let go from even a scrap awareness.

Her nose was bloody, yet unhurt; but her forehead was another thing; the impact with the desk had created a large cut on her forehead, reaching up to the beginning of the scalp. The Anti-Trainer pulled her shirt collar down a bit to reveal distinct finger marks and bruises on her throat when Giovanni had tried to strangle her. She stepped back from the mirror to see Charles scowling, looking down at the ground.

"Don't look at your arm," he said quietly, blinking. His green eyes darkened a bit. "It's too bad."

Ellen rolled her eyes unsmilingly. "And it's a little too late, Einstein." She waved her mangled, gory arm at him. "Already seen it! Seen it plenty of times!"

"Seen what?" Brandon asked, reappearing with a towel rapped around his head, turban-style. He took one look at Ellen and screamed. "OH MY MEW!" Turning green, he ran into a bathroom stall and threw off his towel. There were sounds of nausea and vomiting.

"I wanna watch!" yelled Feolan, running in with him. There were several whispers of 'cool' and 'awesome' coming from the albino Mightyena.

Ellen, sensing all was not right with Charles, talked to him. "Hey…you alright?"

The Charizard heaved a large sigh. "It…it's just that…I feel like I let you down back there."

"But dude," she said, a bit surprised by him, "you were the one who busted in. If you hadn't come in, well…I would be dead."

"But what about our argument? I feel like I got you into the whole mess in the top floor…"

"_Look_. The argument is over. It had nothing to do with our situation whatsoever. And besides," she added, smirking, "now we can say 'Charles did something cool.'"

He returned her smirk with a toothy grin. "Definitely. And after we get out of here…the next gym leader is going down!" They slapped a high-five.

"Good feelings all around!" sang Phil in a sort of a carol.

Brandon returned with the slam of a door. He was breathing heavily. "Boy," he panted, "I knew I should have _never_ eaten that Triple Chipolte Bean Spicy Salsa Enchilada Burrito from Taco Hell! Those things make me sick!" He looked up at Ellen's arm and turned an even deeper shade of green. "OH MY MEW! YOUR _ARM!_" he shrieked, running back into the stall. Feolan laughed as more sounds of gagging and sickness issued from the boy.

Kyoshi sighed. "Oh, now he notices."

She began to slink around the bathroom but suddenly stopped and looked up at the Anti-Trainer. "How are we going to leave the building without your mother noticing us being here?"

Ellen instantly halted and slowly turned her eyes on the Persian. Kyoshi was always quick with details. "You mean-"

"Newspapers will be here," she explained quickly, "Mr. Silph already has your first name. All he needs is your last name. The papers will circulate through Kanto. If you go down to the bottom floor and all of the people see you, they're sure to take pictures. Then, well, your mother would find out about everything."

"Everything," breathed Phil. The Mudkip shivered.

Charles put a dramatic claw to his forehead. "Oh! If only there was a way to somehow fly away from this building, then no one would notice us! If only one of us had wings, we could carry all the others out of the building and to the Saffron Pokémon center!"

Everyone stared at him until Ellen whacked him upside the head.

"Oh," he finally said, beating his wings and grinning, "right."

"OH MAN!" Brandon came out of the bathroom stall again, Feolan trotting behind and laughing. The now white-haired boy turned away from Ellen. "You should get some medical attention," he said a-matter-of-factly. "It's gonna get infected."

"I'll just put gauze on it!" spat the Anti-Trainer. "No big deal."

"Well alright, but remember: Professor Brandon knows best."

"You're not a Professor."

The boy smiled. "But I'm going to be one soon. My dad offered me a position as assistant professor at his lab. I'm quitting Pokémon training, Ellen. This is it for me. I'm gone."

No one spoke.

Ellen shrugged sadly. Even though she had never know the boy to well, it would be sad to not have him around like the last couple of days, cracking corny jokes and acting quite gay. It was going to be a change.

"I'll miss you, you pudgy little gay boy," she said, hugging him.

"Huh?"

"Nothing. Hey Brandon?"

"Yeah?"

"Do me a favor. When you get back to Pallet town, don't tell anybody that I saved Silph Co."

"What?" the boy asked, astonished. "You went through _all that_ for nothing? You should take the credit."

"I just can't," she sighed. "You really deserve it. Listen, I'm asking you. Don't tell anyone that I was here. You did it all yourself. Tell my mom I'm in Celadon and I just finished battling Erika. I'm really happy. I made a lot of friends on my journey and am being good. _Very good._ Got that all?"

Brandon scribbled her dictation all down on a piece of paper. "Yup. But why-"

"One more thing," Ellen interrupted. "Tell my mom that I'm safe and I love her…or something. And I'll call or e-mail her ASAP."

The boy read out the page. "_I'm safe and I send my most heartfelt wishes, Mommy Dearest. I love you. Kisses! Talk to you soon, Ellen._" He proudly folded it in his pocket. "I think that'll do. But why don't you want her to know?"

Ellen lowered her head and stared at Brandon, glaring. "Just don't, okay? As a friend, I'm begging you not to tell her. Can you do that?"

The boy she had teamed up with and the boy she had fought with; the white-haired boy; Brandon Birch; rookie Professor; essence of; looked up at her and nodded slowly, face grave. "As a friend."

* * *

After they had said their numerous goodbyes and thank-yous, Ellen went to see Will. She found him where he said he would be, grasping a long, telescope-like object firmly in his hands; as if it was fragile. He grinned when he saw her. 

"Took you long enough."

"Whatever," she grumbled, taking the Silph Scope gently from him. "So you can see ghosts with this thing?"

"Yup."

"Great. Thanks. I got to leave."

The scientist cocked his head and furrowed his eyebrows. Ellen felt sorry for leave Will in such a hurry; even a bit stupid.

"I don't do well with crowds," she lied.

"Oh…ah, well. Of course. It happens." He raised his eyebrows, questioning. I suppose you'll be leaving now?"

"Sorry. Silph Co is safe, Rockets are gone, and I've done my job."

When she had left, Ellen hoped that Will's awareness of her would disappear; perhaps even completely, at least for now. Once she had flown out the window, she would be expunged from Silph Co, Brandon saved the company. She never came here.

Charles peered at the Anti-Trainer, and she returned his look.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

She nodded.

Mounting Charles was harder than expected.

"Don't sit on my shoulders," he complained in a whiney voice, bending down to stand on all fours. "I'll get a neck ache."

The Anti-Trainer grumbled angrily and grabbed hold of the Charizard's shoulder with one arm, hoisting herself up on his back like a bench. Apart from Charles's large wings that were in the way, everything was fine.

"You're heavy," he growled.

Ellen frowned as the Pokémon slowly walked towards a large window, groaning all the way. With quiet agility, Kyoshi jumped on next to her. Charles mumbled something about 'too much weight,' as Phil jumped on the Charizard's head happily.

Feolan was dumbstruck. "Hey…where the heck am _I_ supposed to sit?"

"Walk," Kyoshi replied simply.

"No."

"Oh fine, fine," Charles sighed, holding out his arm. "Hang onto my arm while we fly. I just hope you don't get airsick like me."

Everyone stared at Charles.

After a brief moment of embarrassment, Will waved to Ellen half-heartedly. "So…I guess you're leaving now?"

"Yup."

"Well…" the scientist traveled over to the window and opened it for them. He paused, letting his hands drop. "Thanks for all you've done for us. Times have been hard for Kanto the last couple of years…the police have almost entirely disappeared, and now Team Rocket can do whatever they please, even taking over a building like Silph Co. We couldn't do anything to stop them. But now look at you!" He turned around and smiled. "You saved us. I can't thank you any more."

"Just doing my job," Ellen said proudly, putting her fists to her hips. "It's my duty."

With a snort of laughter, Will produced a tissue and blew his nose, muttering 'you're hilarious, Ellen.'

The Anti-Trainer smirked sadly and shook her head. If only he knew. "See ya later, Will."

William H. Stanly waved to her as Charles beat his powerful wings and lifted gently off the ground, huffing. They moved towards the window.

"Just think, Ellen," yelled Will over the loud wing beats, "you'll never have to deal with the Rockets again! You can forget all about 'em!"

The Charizard was out the window now, flying in the cold fall air. Feolan was dangling off his arm, hanging on for dear life as Phil giggled happily, enjoying the fresh air. Kyoshi held her head up, as proud as a queen, admiring the cityscape of Saffron City.

The Anti-Trainer turned to face him, face grinning but gray eyes dull. "I shouldn't forget," she called to him, and waving, flew away on the back of a Charizard into the rainy sky. They glided above Saffron, just in time to see the last of the Rockets fleeing the city, their black uniforms matching her own in eerie familiarity. Ellen made a promise to herself that day.

She would never be one of them again.

* * *

Whaz up? 

Just to clear things up, Ellen's dream was _strictly_ a dream, none of that 'prophesy' type crap (duh, Fiery Sapphire isn't a fantasy, it's meant to be somewhat realistic for the Pokémon world. I tried to keep a dream as re-occurring as possible (i.e, having characters quote stuff from the last chapter, etcetera, etcetera.)

GUESS WHAT? I bet no one cares, but we had a CHEATING SCANDAL in a BASEBALL GAME! Le gasp, wewon because the other team cheated! Huzzah! I caught an awesome pop fly AND JUMPED AND FELL! It was COOL! Weee! I'm hyper! Well, bye!

You know, if Iddamsoyt were here, she would say: "OH NO, IT'S THE BOG OF ETERNAL STENCH!"

Well, see ya on the dark side of the moon, reviewers and readers!

REVIEW!


	25. Predictions and Mistakes don't Mix

Hey, I don't own anything except my characters and other little things like Anti-Trainers and such. If I owned Team Rocket...Kanto would be _screwed._

Guess what? This chapter is actually _funny_!

* * *

Fiery Sapphire Ch 25

Predictions and Mistakes don't Mix

An Aerodactyl swooped across a rainy night sky, only illuminated by the faint glow of a few streetlights. There was a chill in the air from late September; and wind whipped up leaves from the ground; spiraling them into the air. A middle-aged man was ineptly seated on the Aerodactyl, the wind slicing his face. He looked disheveled and worn, and a particularly large bruise crept across his left eye.

Giovanni instructed the Pokémon to fly lower over the streets, almost touching the tops of the buildings. He was hoping he could catch a glimpse the Anti-Trainer below on the street (if she had even exited the building yet). Perhaps Aerodactyl could attack her with Ancientpower-- Fiery Sapphire wouldn't even suspect! Yet, far away, The Silph Corporation building was a hazy mass, the bright interior lighting blinding. The Anti-Trainer was still there, most likely. The Boss of Team Rocket pulled a cell phone from his suit pocket and dialed a number.

There were a few dial tones before someone picked up. "Giovanni." The reply was a sharp woman's voice, worried but crisp. "Where are you?"

"Above Kanto," he replied curtly. "I left an hour ago and been flying ever since. And you are…?"

There was a loud sigh of relief. "In Rocket Headquarters with the other executives."

"Ah. Good. Did everyone else make it out?"

"Er…"

"Yes?"

"I think…"

"Thinking is _not_ enough, my dear," came Giovanni's snarling reply, clenching the cell phone. He couldn't afford to lose another twenty or so Grunts now that the Anti-Trainers had returned, no-- even if he could hunt them all himself, there would always be need for defence. The Boss inhaled, waiting for an answer from his wife. The other line was silent.

"Troy…?" he asked quietly, his voice more gentle (or gentle as it could be).

"Hmm?"

There was a moment of awkward silence as the Boss that he had offended his spouse. "Forgive me, Troy," he sighed thoughtfully as One Island flashed below in a sea of green trees. Mr. Ember loomed ahead, billowing black smoke from its top. Troy mumbled something to the effect of a reply. "I'm so _furious_ about Silph Co, though. We controled it for five, prosporous years..._five years_...and then..." he made a fist and beat it on the shoulder of the Aerodactyl who gave off a discontented yelp. "..._and then that damn bitch had to come and RUIN IT_!" His calm was detached, replaced by sheer fury.

"What did you just say?" Troy asked, flustered by use of such oaths.

"Nothing. Nothing at all."

"Honey, are you alright?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"What happened in Silph Co?" she questioned suddenly.

Giovanni's face became emotionless, his jaw tensed. "It's not to be discussed."

"_Not to be discussed with your own WIFE?"_ she shrieked. "What's wrong with you? Ever since those Anti-Trainers came along, you've been so difficult!" She pronounced the word 'Anti-Trainers' as if it were a fatal disease. "You're always ranting about them! You're always giving these disgusting descriptions of their deaths! _Giovanni. _On the contrary to all our your hate, though, you even fell head over heals for some Anti-Trainer--"

"_That is a lie_!" Giovanni roared, although he was lying...and was ashamed of it, too. Yes, once, he _did_ become attracted to a female Anti-Trainer, but that was so long ago! "I though I had dealt with the Anti-Trainers years ago," he replied, determining not to back down. "But obviously I didn't. I'll finish them off this time. I promise. And then we'll have nothing to speak of but love and conpanionship; Anti-Trainers gone forever."

"Why should I care?" she hissed. "I thought we were going for something else! The Silph Co. plan was ruined. Mewtwo escaped. Now, what next? Something besides Anti-Trainers for once, Giovanni, please! Maybe we can…take over the Lavender Town Pokémon Tower and sell the Cubone skulls for profit…they fetch a high price…I'll start that project right now. What about Mew? We could always capture it for even more power. I'll start that too!" Her voice sounded pleading now.

"But they're a threat to Team Rocket."

"What?"

"The Anti-Trainers."

"Oh, what _is _it with you?"

"Emm," he muttered humbly, but a sharp gust of wind brought him back to his senses. He was the leader of the Rockets! His own wife wouldn't bring him down in such ways! He was all-powerful! Invincible! He could do whatever he wanted, and frankly, he didn't give a damn as to what she said. "Troy," he began stiffly, "I'm sorry, but you cannot control my affairs. Team Rocket is not just a petty crime organization- it is a massive _empire_. We have thousands of employees, and I, as the leader. It is my duty to control and lead them. I will not be daunted by you."

All that could be heard was Troy's raggedy breathing.

"If you _must_ know about Silph," Giovanni continued briskly, anger marring his voice, "The scientist Jennifer was actually Fiery Sapphire. I lured her up to my office by holding her Pokémon hostage and snuck up a back way, waiting for her. She came and tore the blueprints up, and I almost killed her but her Charizard overcame Rhydon. I had to..._leave_, and now sport a black eye from a fistfight we had."

"Why did I marry you?" asked his wife blankly after a while.

Giovanni knew the immediate answer of: 'He was five years older than her, he was the powerful leader, he was handsome, rich, and skilled in sexual matters; she was younger, thirsting for a man such as him, and a virgin. Instead, though, he created an answer in her favor. "Perhaps it was because you enticed me so," purred the Boss in a seductive tone, hoping that Troy would calm down. Charm always seemed to work with women.

Troy giggled girlishly. He could already imagine her blushing. Yes…flattery always worked. That was the first lesson in persuasion. "You're right!" she exclaimed as Giovanni grinned, pleased with himself. "I'm sorry I was so demanding, honey...let's make it up to each other back at Headquarters..."

The Boss steered the Aerodactyl across Three Island. No one had noticed the great reptile flying through the early morning skies. "Of course, my dear. I'm almost at the Headquarters; I need to go."

"Oh, fine," she pouted. "Well, bye!"

"Goodbye."

OoO

Meanwhile, Abby Hoskidans slowly looked up at the deserted Wegmans Salon, sighing as she dropped a backpack on the sidewalk and adjusted one of her multiple earrings. The green-haired woman was worried. She paced back and forth; she mumbled to herself; she constantly looked towards the Silph Co. building. When was Ellen going to come back? It had been…Abby counted on her fingers. A week since she last saw her.

As if on cue, a particularly ill-looking Charizard swooped through the air, touched down on the ground, deposit it's riders off it's back, and walked over to a trash can only to vomit seconds later. "Abby!" Ellen said happily, standing up. She was a bit wobbily from the flight and stumbled to the curb where her friend was sitting. "Flying is _so_ fun! You should try it sometime. Feolan almost fell off!"

"My life flashed before my eyes," muttered the albino Mightyena sarcastically.

The woman stared wide-eyed at her before jumping on the spot and hugging the girl, squealing with excitement. "Wow! You did it, you did it, you did it!" She laughed, pulling her from the hug, and finally noticed the scars on her face and arm. "Shit...those cuts...Ellen, what happened?"

Ellen's mood seemed to dampen a bit, and she shook her head. "Slow down, Abby. I got to change out of this first." She gestured to her Grunt ripped, bloody Grunt uniform. "Then I'll tell you, but promise you won't tell anyone."

"No problem. Cross my heart and hope to die." Abby grabbed the backpack from the ground and tossed it to Ellen, happy to have it back. "Be quick, though!"

The Anti-Trainer ran into Wegmans to change and came out five minutes later in attire consisting of jeans, a blue-tee shirt, sneakers, a pair of batting gloves, and gauze rapped around her arm.

She gave Abby a weak thumbs up, her arm still painful from when Giovanni twisted it. "Alright. Well, let's see; how about we start with me meeting up with Brendan."

"Who?"

The Anti-Trainer squinted her eyes and sat down on the curb, resting her elbow on her knee. "He's a little white-haired writter boy. He doesn't have a boyfriend. When I got in Silph Co, I met Brendan in the elevator and we decided to defeat the Rockets together; but it didn't turn out that way. See, we met these Grunts named Natalie and Ralph, and…"

OoO

"Dude," Abby said slowly, scratching the back of her sea-green head, "that…was…awesome."

"You think?" Ellen asked, shaken by recounting her battle with Giovanni.

"Definitely," she said, "it was better than anything I've done. Being a ninja-in-training isn't all that hot. So what are you going to do now?"

She shrugged and said, "Uh...I'm gonna go to the Pokémon Center and chill awhile before smashing the Gym Leader here."

"Watch out," warned the woman, "Sabrina is awfully tough."

"Yo momma is awfully tough." Feolan slapped a paw to his forehead. "Wait! That was a COMPLIMENT, not a diss! I'm defeated!" He slummed over on the sidewalk in mock demise.

"You're an idiot, Feolan," Ellen said, standing up and yawning. "Well I'm really tired. Guess it's time to go."

"Not another flight…" moaned Charles the Charizard, clutching his head.

"All right. So, see you at Fuchsia Gym."

"Huh?"

"I'm a ninja in training, remember?"

"Oh, right," the Anti-Trainer exclaimed, climbing onto Charles. "Well, see you then and thanks for the help."

Abby smiled widely. "Hey. What are green-haired, multi-pierced, dysfunctional people for?"

* * *

The Anti-Trainer burst through the doors of the Pokémon Center and screamed, "I HOPE YOU DON'T MIND THAT I'M SLEEPING ON YOUR COUCH BECAUSE I AM RIGHT NOW AND I'M A HEAVY SLEEPER SO YOU CAN'T MOVE ME OFF AND DON'T YELL AT ME EITHER CAUSE I CAN DROP-KICK YOU ALL THE WAY FROM HERE TO INDIGO PLATEAU!" 

No one objected because she was the only person there at the time besides the Nurse who was reading _Cosmopolitan_ behind the counter, who looked as if she was half-dead.

Ellen happily jumped onto the couch and pulled a blanket out of her seemingly endless backpack. Kyoshi curled up against the PC, Feolan made a home behind a table, Charles used another couch, and Phil jumped on the Charizard's head and promptly went to sleep.

"Just like last time," mumbled the Persian in a content whisper. "Just like last time."

"What you mean?" the girl asked, staring up at the ceiling.

"Last time we beat the Rockets," she answered sleepily. "We all went to sleep at the end of the night." She was dozing off now, breathing heavily. "You used the bed…Charles was still a Charmeleon…I was still a Meowth…and…and…" She struggled for the words.

"And Feolan was an ass, as always?"

"Yes he was. And…we all went to sleep…but we had done it. We made it."

"Like this time?" asked Ellen, dazed.

"Yes. Like this time."

The Persian finally went to sleep as the Nurse slumped over, dropping the magazine and dozed off to. Feolan was thrashing and mumbling in his sleep, saying things like: 'The One' and 'Must…Destroy…the Matrix.' Charles was snoring softly while Phil giggled as he slumbered. Eventually, the Anti-Trainer surrendered to sleep also.

The morning soon came, and Phil woke up first, sugar-high as always and bouncing all over the Center. A few people had already begun to walk in, flashing strange glances at the tall, gloved girl who was splayed over the couch like a dead Snorlax. One brave boy went up and poked her on the arm, whispering.

"Excuse me miss," he murmured softly, leaning over her. "But I don't think you can sleep here."

"I can do anything I damn well please!" retorted Ellen, grumpily pushing the boy away and sitting up. She realized that many people were glaring at her and jumped up, blinking. "Oh. Um…I'll be going now. Well…Bye!"

She was out of the Center before you could say 'OMG, exclamation point, exclamation point, one, one, one, Giovanni just pwned my Pokémon and maimed my second cousin with an eggplant.' Of course, if you speak at a reasonable speed, then that phrase might take a while, but that was just how slow Ellen was on the uptake. As soon as the traveling dunces were out on the busy streets of Saffron, they began their trek to the Physic Gym. When the Rockets had invaded Silph Co, most people had hid, but now the population was back to thriving and people roamed the streets on foot, bikes, and even SmartCars.

"I still want a Porsche," Ellen alleged. The group had resulted to walking because Charles was sick of flight already. "We need some money."

"Life's a bitch," complained Feolan.

"Amen, brother."

They soon reached the gym; a rather small building with an exterior of flat, gray concrete and a sign reading: _Pokémon Gym_. The walls were dirty and filled with graffiti. A rather large piece of artwork painted in black and red screamed: _TEAM ROCKET RULES!_ Around that were various signatures.

The interior of the gym was much different, though, with an eerie green carpet and walls splattered with dark purple paint. Kyoshi was on the alert in the gym, ears flattened back against her head, mouth set in a permanent snarl.

"There's only space for one Physic in this town, and it's _me_," she growled, pacing around the area. "This place is teeming with physic energy."

"Get over yourself. You just have to accept that they're other Physics out there besides you," Phil said.

"I _can't_. It's just a Physic thing. I bet all the others in here are nervous too."

Ellen looked around. On the carpeted floor were imbedded four teleportation pads. She groaned. "Holy Shit! Not more of these! Don't tell me we have to do this _all_ over again."

"Déjà Vu," the Charizard answered. He shrugged, but then suddenly lifted his head up. "Hey! I have an idea! Why don't I just burn through the walls until we reach the gym leader?" Everyone agreed. It sounded like a splendid idea to everyone.

Charles stepped up to North wall and spewed flames at it, the wood catching instantly and creaking with weight. Finally, the wall collapsed.

They entered a very different room as they stepped through the blank spot where the wall had been. It had only one teleportation pad, and in the middle of the room, there was a table with a star-pattered cloth on it with a crystal ball on top. Sitting at the table was none other then Sabrina with a large turban positioned on her head and over dramatic make-up.

"What the hell?" asked Ellen when she stepped in the room. "Are you the gym leader?"

Sabrina waved her hands in the air wildly, showing long, red nails. "Yes I am. Would you like me to tell your fortune? Only thirty dollars with tax!"

"_You're not a real Physic_," Kyoshi thought dully. "_You're a fraud._"

"I am _not_!" contradicted the gym leader. "Ha! See? I can read thoughts."

"_That's because I allowed you to_."

She rolled her eyes and beckoned the Anti-Trainer to come sit down. "Come sit down and I'll show you _how_ physic I really am! I even know your name, young trainer…"

"I'm not even a freaking trainer, woman."

"Oh right, of course, uh…I was just kidding. Anyway, I even know your name…Ohhhh! Mysterious!" Sabrina wiggled her fingers again and made ghostly noises. "Your name is…SALLY!"

"Ellen. It's _Ellen_. And I'm an Anti-Trainer"

She wrinkled her nose up and stared at her. "Riiiigggghhhhhtttt, Anti-Trainerssss…never heard of 'em." she sighed, nodding her head. "Now! Would you like your future to be told?"

"No," Ellen snorted, laughing. "You're just gonna make something up. I just want the badge and then I'll leave." She held her hand out. "So…what? Are we going to battle, or are you just gonna give me the badge?"

Sabrina ignored her completely and started hovering over the crystal ball, making strange noises and clapping her hands and other mystical things. She first put out her left foot, bought it back in, and did the same with her right foot, hands, head, and whole body.

"You do the Hokey-Pokey and you spin yourself around, that's what it's all about!" the woman sang the Hokey-Pokey song and did the dance around the table, chanting for all she was worth.

"Feolan," whispered Charles fearfully, "is the Hokey-Pokey _really_ what it's all about? Is it? _Is it_?" He began to suck his claw and whine. "I'm scared…"

"Me too, buddy, me too," the Mightyena whimpered.

"I HAVE DECIDED YOUR FUTURE, ELLEN!" Sabrina screamed after doing various dances such as the Hokey-Pokey, the Macarena, the Cha Cha Slide and Cotton Eyed Joe. The woman seated herself back at the table again and grinned. "Your future…first! After you pay me fifty dollars and leave this gym, you will then go to…CINNABAR ISLAND! CORRECT?"

"Uh…no. I haven't beaten Koga yet."

"Well then you're going in the wrong order," she snapped coldly. "Fine then, I'll change it." She cleared her throat and adapted the same mystical voice. "After you pay me seventy dollars and leave this gym, you will then go to…LAVENDER TOWN! CORRECT?"

Ellen frowned. "Yeah…" Sabrina grinned triumphantly.

"Good. THEN! After you pay me one hundred dollars, you will depart from Kanto and fly over to the capital of Chinnponesia, which is Walla Walla Mustachesmellyfeet with your friend Mr. Clean and Botox Man, and meet a tall, dark, stranger…WITH THE NAME OF FINKLEHIMER JR.! AND HIS SIDEKICK, JOHN JACOB JINGLE HIMER SMIT!"

"You're a crazyasshole. And Ibet you aren't even a real Physic!" The Anti-Trainer kicked her on the shin. "I want that badge!"

Sabrina jumped up and held her shin, whining babyishly. "OW OW OW! You crazy girl! I predict you will DIE soon in your future, because you broke my shin! After you pay me one million dollars you will die a horrible, slow death; with lots of pain and gore and blood and your neck will be slit in half by your worst enemy, which you make you Nearly-Headless Ellen and a Steelix will eat your dismembered body and no one will morn you, not even your parents, and people will be laughing at you and they'll rejoice," she yelled all in one breath, and added quickly in the teen's ear, "but if you pay my two million dollars, I can cut the death short a bit."

"HOLY SHIT, WOMAN! YOU'RE CRAZY!"

"No I am _not_!" she protested, slurring her words a bit, drooling, and crossing her eyes. "I'm Physic, that's all! Now, after you meet Finklehimer Jr. and John Jacob Jingle Himer Smit and defeating Blaine and Koga, you will embark to Bananaville where you and your Pokémon will eat lots and lots of eggplant! Then, after you leave, you'll meet your friends for a party in the middle of a desert where the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man will come and rain glorious textbooks on you. Finally, you will embark to the last gym leader, who is-"

"Are you on drugs or something?" interrupted Feolan, "Cause, you know, you sound like it."

"Hallucigens, Marijuana, and crack help my supernatural visions!" the gym leader piped, giving Ellen an evil grin. "Yes, I CAN understand Pokémon, like you! All Physics can! OH, I GOT THAT RIGHT TOO, HUH? YEAH, I CAN SEE IT ON YOUR FACE! Hahaha! You lose, Ellen! You don't get the badge!" She jumped up on the table and began to dance around.

The Anti-Trainer simply pushed her off the table. "Screw you!" she yelled as Kyoshi jumped over to the woman and began totally pawning her with _real_ physic moves.

"_No one messes with a real Physic. Oh, bring it on. Yes. It's my birthday_. _It's my birthday. I'm going to party like it's my birthday._" The Persian intoned, clawing up Sabrina. After the woman was unconscious and had been looted of over two hundred dollars that came from defrauding other innocent trainers, Kyoshi took a badge from the gym leader's pocket.

"Thanks, Kyoshi," Ellen said, putting the badge in her badge case. So far the Anti-Trainer had won three, stolen one, and had taken one by means of force. "The next gym leader is Koga; Abby told me…and then two more to go. I wonder who the other gym leaders are."

Sabrina groaned and sat up wearily, blinking at the direct light. She yawned. "You were supposed to battle Koga first, not me. I…I really see, in the future that you will battle Blaine the Pyro, and then the last gym leader you will battle is-"

"SHUT YOUR FRICKIN MOUTH UP! WE DON'T NEED YOUR FRICKIN HELP! WE CAN FIGURE IT OUT FRICKIN OURSELVES!" the Anti-Trainer screamed, kicking her and wondering why she used the word 'frickin' three times in that sentence. The gym leader did as she was told and crept back against the wall, nursing a bruise on her elbow and shooting Ellen evil glares.

"The future never lies…"whispered Sabrina, wiggling her fingers yet again. She giggled and slumped over, asleep.

"We can only press on to find out," reminded Phil happily, whistling a small, cheery tune.

The girl nodded. "Yup. But first, we need to get in touch with the Anti-Trainers."

"How are you gonna break the news to them?" Feolan asked her as they walked out of the gym.

She shrugged. "I'll manage."

And the group walked off, another badge in hand, another fifteen pages written by Flameboo. Thank shit I'm almost finished with this chapter.

* * *

In a dimly lit hall, the sound of footsteps echoed against the marble walls. Several Rocket Guards stood, briskly saluting the figure that walked by them. 

"Good Morning, Boss."

"Everything is up to date, Boss."

"Everyone is ready and accounted for, Boss."

"Glad to see you made it, Boss."

"What's with his eye?" whispered one named Madeline, and in reply was elbowed in the ribs by another named Oleg.

"Shh," Oleg hissed. "Don't question anything. Leave it be…"

"Aww…Can I ask him?"

"No."

"Can I ask him now?"

"No."

"Now?"

"NO NO NO!" screamed the Guard, right as the figure passed by. Oleg shrank back against the wall as the shadow glared at him.

"Er…Sorry for the outbreak. Have a nice day, Boss."

Two Grunts opened a large set of doors for him, and Giovanni stepped into a room with only three inhabitants. Troy Hobotson, Donovan Kyler, and Mirror B. all seated around a card table, playing Poker. They didn't even seem to notice the man who had stealthily sauntered in.

"I don't even get this game," Donovan stormed nastily, digging a knife into the table and chipping off small pieces of plastic. "Can't we do anything else? Like go have a smoke or something?"

"GO FISH!" cheered Mirror B, throwing all the chips up in the air and letting them rain down on the three Executives. The black-haired man groaned and banged his head on the table softly, mumbling to himself about how bored he was. Donovan Jr., a genetically mutated Pikachu, gargled a bit before crawling onto its master's shoulder.

Giovanni chose this moment to walk over to them, pulling over a chair and seating himself next to Troy. "Well, well, well," he said nattily, smiling thinly, "aren't we having a fun little game! Who's winning? Mirror B? Mrs. Hobotson? Or has Mr. Kyler cheated yet and already won?"

"That was only once; and it wasn't Poker, it was Blackjack," Donovan muttered angrily as Troy stood up to face the Boss.

"Oh _Gi-Gi_! My _Italian Stallion_!" she cried, draping her arms around him as the other two turned their backs to them and were shaking like mad, trying to hold back maniacal laughter. She smothered her head on his shoulder and adapted a slightly babyish way of speaking. "I've missed wou so much!"

There were murmurings of 'Gi-Gi' and 'Italian Stallion' accompanied by insane giggles coming from the other two.

"I've…missed you too…Troy," muttered Giovanni, blushing profusely.

She reached up and stroked his face. "Oh no, you're hwert! Did that mean widdle Antee-Twainer hwert wou? I bwet she did!" Troy hugged him tighter, and now the Boss was frowning heavily. He felt a bit guilty.

"No, it's very, very, fine, Troy. We can worry about it later." He finally pried her off him and she sat back down, the others resuming their original places. The middle-aged man rested his elbows on the table. "I totally and utterly cannot believe we have been brought down by a mere teenage girl," he began in a snarl. "This is a disgrace. We've been tricked. We had almost all of our operatives in Silph Corporation, and yet we let one single Anti-Trainer slip through our fingers. Do you know why?"

No one answered.

"Because we made fatal errors in our planning," he answered himself, banging his fist on the table. "How? Take Mr. Kyler for example. When he found Fiery Sapphire disguised as a Grunt late at night, he didn't simply put her with the other Grunts; he let her become a scientist." All eyes turned to a grimacing Donovan. The Boss raised his eyebrows and folded his hands on the desk. "_That_ was the biggest mistake."

"Any others, Boss Man Dude Sir G-money Hommie Slice?" asked Mirror B., making a steeple of Poker chips. His leader suddenly swept his hand out and knocked the tower over, splaying chips everywhere.

He stood up and leaned forward to face the three very nervous Executives. Giovanni looked horribly intimidating at the time with his wide-open, shining dark eyes, one marred by an uneven bruise, nostrils flared, his mouth a thin line of anger, his normally immaculate, slicked black hair tousled and revealing bits of gray roots. The sleeve of his black suit was slightly torn revealing a cut clotted by dried blood.

"Yes. Of course," he said deeply, staring at the place where the tower had been. He picked up a chip and fingered it in his hand. "Many; plenty of mistakes. Mistakes we could of stopped." The Boss turned to Donovan. "You. You make almost all the mistakes."

"No I didn't!" the young man protested, backing up out of his chair. "Well, I mean-"

"Just admit it," the Boss spat, walking over to him, wide eyes still staring dead at him. He flung the Poker chip onto the floor. "It was your fault. You did it."

"Stop it," cried Mirror B. "Can you tell all this fighting is TEARING US APART?"

"No, I-"

"I should have never hired you. You've just been a waste of money to Team Rocket. You say you especially hate that Anti-Trainer; Gold? Hm. You're as pathetic as him."

That did it. The executive stepped forward and brought his face up to Giovanni's, edging him on. Troy and Mirror B. shrunk back as if they were preparing for a war.

Suddenly, Donovan stepped back and yelled, "YEAH? WELL YOU KNOW WHAT? I WASN'T THE ONE WHO JUST SAT IN MY OFFICE THE WHOLE DAY JUST _WAITING_ FOR FIERY SAPPHIRE TO COME ALONG! I WAS THE ONE WORKING MY ASS OFF ON THE S. S. ANNE!" He stopped to breath and looked up at his leader who seemed to have totally ignored the speech. The executive was breathing heavily now and Donovan Jr. stood in back of him, hissing and gargling for all he was worth.

"What…are…you…implying?" Giovanni asked in a bored tone. "Are you saying I'm lazy?"

"YEAH!" he continued in a hoarse roar, "I MEAN, SERIOUSLY, I WASN'T THE ONE WHO GOT BEAT UP BY SOME TEENAGE GIRL! _TWICE_! THAT'S HOW PATHETIC YOU ARE! IT WAS YOUR FAULT THE WHOLE SILPH CO. THING CAME CRASHING DOWN ON US! YOU'RE NOT A _BOSS_! YOU'RE NOT A _LEADER_! YOU'RE JUST SOME SON OF A BITCH WHO GOT LUCKY!"

Having nothing else to say, he finally released a yell and brought his knife forward upon his Boss. Suddenly Giovanni also reached his hand forward and grabbed the young man's wrist. Almost as quickly, Donovan gasped and let the knife drop as the man slapped him hard across the face, letting him reel back and fall to the floor.

The superior smiled coldly to himself and spat at his feet. "Grunts," he called, and two obedient Rockets zipped up to him. He gestured to the executive who was now bleeding from the nose and had a red mark clouding his cheek, a shocked and scared expression on his face. "Take Mr. Kyler to…er…somewhere else besides here. Anywhere. The broom closet with do, even."

"Broom closet it is!" piped a female Grunt named Morgan cheerfully, flashing the Boss a dazzling smile and winking at him. The man wondered why she was being so friendly, and then slowly remembered her face. Morgan looked familiar…oh yes; he had slept with her last week. Ah, now he remembered. And then the week before that another one. Named Devon? Maybe. Ah, of course, how could he have been so forgetful? That's why he felt guilty about Troy. Oh well, women come and go.

"I'm glad that's over with," Giovanni growled after they had left.

"He's dreadfully scary," mumbled Troy, but he wasn't sure as to whom exactly she was referring to.

Meanwhile Mirror B. had begun to build up the chip tower again, taking delight in alternating between red and blue pieces. He stopped suddenly and turned to his leader. "Yo," he said finally, "I know another mistake! I had a funky fresh dance-off with Fiery Sapphire and I lost, yo, cuz I didn't know how to break dance like her! We should have break dancin' lessons! YOW! Let the music spin!"

Giovanni moaned heavily and banged his head on the table, sitting down. "I need some vodka." Morgan obeyed him and brought him a bottle of alcohol, which the Boss halfway finished in one gulp.

"Drinking to much is bad for you," chastised his wife, pulling the bottle away from him.

"Well I say it isn't," he said, pulling it back and taking another sip. "And I deserve it."

"Oh, _fine_."

Troy sighed and sulked for a while, pouting and trying to attract her husband's attention while Mirror B.'s tower turned into a fortress, then a palace, and finally a castle. When at last he was finished, he grinned to himself and knocked it over, laughing.

"The fun is in destroying it!" he said to himself happily, walking out of the room. "Goodnight everybody!"

"IT'S ONE IN THE MORNING!" roared Giovanni after him, but the disco man didn't seem to notice. He stood up. "I give up. I'm leaving."

"Oh." Troy followed him, not wanting to be in the room alone. "Where are you going?"

"Somewhere. To think...or go to bed…or- ARGH!" He threw his hands up in the air and tilted his head upwards. "I have _no_ idea. I'm just LEAVING. Must you be so…attached to me?"

"I'm sorry," muttered his wife, and quickly walked off, her head down. "I'll start the Pokémon Tower project."

The Boss watched her leave and then left also, letting the doors close behind him as darkness enveloped the room. He banged the doorframe loudly. "Fiery Sapphire is trying to kill me," he whispered to himself, drunk, as he walked down the hall and attracted quite a lot of attention. "But…but I'll kill her _first_. Oh, yes. Ha-ha…I will. I won't stop until I see…I see…heh…_blood_ spill. Ha…blood spill…ha…yes…that's funny…ha-ha…" He laughed quietly to himself and slunk away. The two Guards standing outside the door looked at each other.

"Can I ask him now?" asked Madeline.

* * *

OMFG GIOVANNI IS AN ALCOHOLIC!11ONE!ONE4!ONE1!TWO2!1 

Yeah, you probably could have guessed that. All right, this chapter gets two awards. One, the Most Random Chapter, and two, having the Weirdest Gym Leader EVUH.

(Ahem…) REVIEW!


	26. Old People Get All the Respect

Short chapter. Don't blame me if it's weird; blame yourself because YOU INFLUENCED IT! HAHAHAHAHAHA- Sigh…

* * *

Fiery Sapphire 26

Old People Get All the Respect

With shaky fingers, Ellen dialed a number into her cell phone and waited, giggling like a lunatic. Any normal trainer in the Saffron Pokémon Center would be likely to shoot her strange glances, wondering why she was giggling on the phone, having a pleasant conversation with her Pokémon; but the Center was unoccupied at the moment.

Her Charizard raised his eyebrow at her and said disbelievingly, "Do you really think this is a good idea?" Charles had been her longest friend and was a persistently cautious dragon despite rumors of Charizard being 'temperamental.'

Ellen brushed a stray brown hair from her face. "Duh," she returned blankly, looking down at the phone screen as the dial tone sounded a few times, but no one had picked up the phone yet. Finally, the screen went blank and a monotonous operator's voice said: _Not Available_. She tried again, but to no avail.

"That's weird…" Feolan muttered to himself, scratching his colorless ear. The albino Mightyena tapped the screen with his nose. "Maybe they left a message."

Ellen shrugged and fooled around with the phone for a while, sitting on a hard, cheap couch in the Saffron Pokécenter. Within seconds, she had discovered she had only one new message. "Bingo!" she proclaimed, reading it aloud to her Pokémon.

_Fiery-_

_Since we haven't heard from you in…oh…DAYS, and since you might be dead right now, we've coming over to see you. The closest place to come is Lavender Town via the Rock Tunnel, so we'll meet you there. At least, we HOPE that we'll meet you there._

_-The Anti-Trainers_

Ellen stood up calmly, pocketed her cell phone, and ran around the Center like a lunatic, screaming her head off.

The Anti-Trainers were coming to Lavender Town? _NOW_? What would they think? What were they going to say when they saw her in her condition?

The girl told her Pokémon about their visit, but they just laughed and laughed at her. Finally, though, Feolan responded with a sufficient answer.

"You're screwed," he said simply.

"But you are, though," Kyoshi mumbled as they were walking out the door, yawning. "I do think Feolan is right. You certainly are screwed." The Mightyena lowered his eyelids and grinned haughtily; the trademark Feolan Grin.

Ellen gave the Wolf Pokémon an obscene finger gesture and continued to walk across Saffron, the dense city eventually morphing into the green country road of Route 8. As the outline of Lavender Town sat on the nearing horizon, people started to come running from the opposite direction, fleeing from Lavender. As their cries became louder, the Anti-Trainer noticed something very important, something that would change her life.

"I haven't bathed in a week!" she pointed out happily, as all her Pokémon screamed and backed away from her. Charles fainted on the spot and fell on Feolan while Kyoshi gagged a bit and Phil laughed.

"Me either!" the Mudkip agreed, looking towards the people running away from the ghostly town. "But hey…wait…why is everyone running away from Lavender Town?"

"I dunno," said the Charizard, regaining consciousness and sitting up. "Let's ask someone."

On cue, a random person ran up to Ellen and started shaking her shoulders madly, shrieking in her face. "MR. FIJI HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED! OH HOLY HO-OH! HE'S UP IN THE TOWER, SWEET LUGIA! WHAT THE HELL ARE WE GONNA DOOOO?" The man then let go of her and ran screaming away, arms flailing wildly.

Kyoshi blinked. "Well that explains a lot. And gives us all the better reason to continue on."

"And I can take a shower!"

"And we can get some _Critical Treatment_!" harked Charles and Feolan simultaneously. Phil frowned questioningly and looked at them.

"What's Critical Treatment?"

The two both shook their heads slowly, smiling sadly. "You have much to learn, young Padawan…"

"And you know what?" asked the Charizard to no one in particular, "I'm tired of walking. Let's get up there and fly! I'm finally going to try and conquer my fears of flight and seek the better things in life, such as a free spirit; fun; and the meaning of life! It's my destiny to fly, and I can achieve it!"

As soon as they departed in the air, Charles turned a vivid shade of green and threw up on the head of a familiar someone.

"So much for that monologue," Ellen muttered, looking down at the unfortunate pedestrian. "Huh. That guy looks familiar…Holy shit, Charles, you just barfed on Ash Ketchum, Pokémon League Champion. Again."

They were silent for a while.

"ALL RIGHT!" she finally cheered, slapping the Charizard a high-five. "It's a new record! Wait to go!"

"Aw, shucks," muttered Charles, blushing, "it was nothing." Feolan patted him harshly on the back, causing him to vomit again, this time on…the Lavender Town Pokémon Center?

Ellen blinked and raised her eyebrows questioningly. "Wait- wasn't that just the Lavender Town Pokécenter? That would mean that we're in-"

_SLAM!_

Charles flew straight into the Pokémon Tower, crashing into the wall and falling roughly ten feet where the whole group landed with a thud, sprawled out on the ground. The Lizard Pokémon was sitting on top of everyone, smiling like a fool.

"Boy," he said sarcastically, "thanks for breaking my fall, everybody. That wasn't so bad. But next time, maybe we should stop before crashing into a wall. Sound good?"

"You're crushing me, fatass," growled the girl, pushing him off her and looking around. The whole town was in turmoil, people running around like maniacs, all over one old man. "Wow. There has to be more to this than just Mr. Fiji. I mean, he's nice and all, but…people just don't get all freaked over an old dude."

"Old people get all the respect!" shouted Feolan defiently, glad to be young.

"Are only hope is to go in the tower, I guess," Phil recommended. He looked around. "But the Anti-Trainers aren't here yet. Hey Charles and Feolan, how bout we get some of that 'Critical Treatment' we were talking about before?

The two more experienced Pokémon grinned and looked at each other. "Oh yeah."

So the group went their separate ways for the time being; the three males went and were smothered with affection by an estimated million Nurse Joys; Kyoshi slunk off and wandered the streets of the town, and Ellen took a well-deserved shower.

Finally, they came back together and stood outside the Pokémon Tower, waiting for the Anti-Trainers to arrive. The gray-eyed girl checked her watch and tapped it impatiently. "We've been waiting for thirty minutes now. Can we just _please _go on?"

Feolan shrugged. "Hey, we might as well because- HOLY FUCKLEBERRIES!"

Ellen whipped around to see a huge Alteria flying through the air, squawking madly and sending pedestrians scurrying in all directions. The bird made his landing directly in front of the girl and ruffled his feathers, hissing.

"This is again, Pokémon abuse," he hissed, pointing his unnaturally sharp beak at her. "Your friends better not make any more long distance trips, cause boy, you're gonna be _in for it_ if they do!"

"Good job, Duchess," cooed a dark haired woman who had appeared behind the bird. "Who's a good Alteria? WHO'S A GOOD ALERIA? You are! YES YOU ARE!" The woman, known as Marylyn, then turned to Ellen and laughed. "FIERY! So glad to see you! How are things going?"

"Besides going through two awfully painful and possibly life scarring battles, I'm great. Oh. And I saved Silph Co."

"Wonderful," Marylyn exclaimed, stroking the Alteria's neck. Behind them, Miguel and Russell appeared, falling off the Pokémon with a loud thud. Red jumped up instantly, pretending it never happened; while the younger man groaned and stayed on the ground.

"My God," Russell said when he saw Ellen.

"My stars," said another woman named Samara.

"My spleen…" Miguel whined.

Ellen waved to them half-heartedly. "Hiya guys. So…I guess I have some explaining to do, huh? Well, how about we have the good news first? I saved Silph Co! Isn't that great?" She pumped her fists and grinned. "By myself! Isn't that great? Please don't be mad at me for not calling…"

Red crossed his arms, revealing the left one to be mechanical. He raised his eyebrows and nodded; a motion that he seemed to do quite a lot. "I have every right to, but I'm not cause of Silph Co. First of all," he pointed to her arm, "what happened?"

"Err…A Pokémon did it?" the girl lied, smiling guiltily. "Yeah, see, this big…Ivysaur came up to me- I swear, it was totally random, and it just started attacking me. But," she jerked her thumb back at her Pokémon, "we took care of it for sure. It was dead in two seconds."

"Weird," agreed Miguel, taken aback. Samara nodded, but Russell looked skeptical.

"Really?" he asked, walking forward. "Then I guess a Pokémon did _that_ to, huh?" He motioned to Ellen's neck. The collar was low enough to reveal the finger-shaped bruises around her neck, and she grinned sheepishly. It was no use lying now.

She put her hands up in mock defeat. "Alright, alright, so I was lying. So what am I supposed to do? Tell the truth?"

Gold, or Miguel, rolled his eyes. "That would be helpful."

"The S. S Anne, Celadon, and Saffron," Red warned. "I want to hear it all."

"Me tooooo!" sang Marylyn, jumping happily in the air. "The thrills! The action! The drama! The romance! I've reserved a restaurant seating for us!"

"YOU WHAT?" Russell shrieked, whipping his head to face her.

"Well, we're not going to tell it all here, are we?" asked the woman, walking to an unnamed building. "Come on, I'm hungry! And Princess Marylyn always gets what she wants!"

So, the group hesitantly followed her to the building which turned out to be a horribly overpriced restaurant called _Pikachu avec la Merde._ Inside was lavishly decorated; making the five Anti-Trainers and Pokémon seem even more out of place in their jeans and tee-shirts.

"And you expect us to pay for this?" asked Samara once they were seated. She looked down the menu and her eyes popped open immediately. "I didn't even make this much in a month when I was a nurse!"

"Then you must have had a very crappy job," the woman snapped as a waiter came up and took their orders. Naturally, Marylyn ordered some foreign dish that no one could pronounce besides her. Red did try once to pronounce it, but he stopped suddenly when he realized everyone in the restaurant was staring at him. To forget about his embarrassment, Russell instructed Ellen to tell about her last missions.

"Bllluutt I cwannet rite dow, I'm flaeating," gargled the teenager, chewing and picking at her food which consisted of some type of gelatin called Prickly Pear Flan. In truth, she was stalling (which she was very good at,) but Charles soon halted that when he just ate the whole thing himself. "Thanks a lot, fatso," she growled.

"No problem," he returned. "Now come on, tell about my awesome heroics."

So she began to tell, yet again, the two missions. She didn't leave anything out; even if Miguel did mumble to himself when she told about Donovan; or if Marylyn crumpled over laughing when she heard about Mirror B. and Wegmans; or if Samara looked at Kyoshi sympathetically when Jeff made his appearance; or even if Russell pressed his lips together and narrowed his eyes when he heard about Giovanni. They said they wanted it all, and she gave it to them.

"Yup, that's it," the girl sighed. "Oh, and then we went and saw you guys, and you asked me to tell you the adventure, so I did, and then I said 'Well, that's it' and then I said-"

Red pounded his fist on the table in front of him, upturning a glass. He glowered at the table and snarled, "That bastard Giovanni! Did you hear what he did? That coward!" He motioned towards Ellen. "Seriously! Sicking a huge Rhydon on a poor, innocent, girl?"

Ellen rolled her eyes, looking up at him. "Hey; don't insult me like that."

"Yeah, chill Russ," Miguel said, cleaning off his glasses with a napkin. He scrutinized the lenses and then placed them back on. "You got to admit. She did something pretty awesome. Anyway," he continued, turning to Ellen, "You did want to do it, didn't you?"

"Hell yeah!"

"See? So it's settled."

It was too late. Russell was on a role; he had that alert look in his eye that people often have when they've experienced too much in life. He looked as if that had happened to him, and not just because he had his arm to show it. Red had a keen eye for danger, not to mention an unruly disposition that seemed to attract it.

_After all,_ Ellen thought, _he did start the Anti-Trainers. He's prone to that sort of stuff._

"Damn Red! Look, I _lived_, but-" she began, but was cut off.

Russell had entered a tangent, though, there was no use stopping him. "But what if Donovan _actually did_ get you with the knife? What if Mirror B. _actually was_ a good dancer? What if that Rhyhorn _actually did_ slash you up? What if Giovanni _actually succeeded_ in strangling you?"

"Then I'd be dead?" guessed the teen sarcastically.

"NO! I mean- well, technically, yes, but…" he trailed off and sighed, drumming his metal fingers on the table. "Anyway, it's dangerous to go on missions alone when Team Rocket is so strong. That said, we ourselves will be accompanying you to the Pokémon Tower to save Mr. Fiji and all those Cubone from the _evil clutches_ of TEAM ROCKET!"

"He really like to emphasis, doesn't he?" Kyoshi whispered to Charles, who nodded in return.

"So Team Rocket is behind this again, huh?" asked Ellen, fooling with her batting gloves. "Well, I'm officially screwed if that's the case." Her Pokémon nodded in agreement.

Marylyn waved her hand. "Nonsense, Fiery dear. It's not just you. We're all officially screwed." Everyone turned and looked at her, while the woman suppressed giggles and raised her eyebrows. "Well we're not going to get anywhere just staring at me. Shall we go to the Pokémon Tower?"

* * *

After the group had paid the bill, they arrived in the second floor of the Pokémon Tower. Gravestones rested all around. A draft blew through the broken windows, sending cold sheets of rain onto the dusty and bone-strewn carpet. Lighting and thunder rumbled, even though it had been a beautiful day almost two minutes ago. A particularly loud bout of thunder roared, and the group jumped. 

"Jinkies!" exclaimed Samara, twirling a piece of blond hair around her finger as she looked wearily around. "It's pretty creepy in here, and just the place for a crime to take place! And those poor Cubone…I feel so bad for them…"

"It's okay, Silver," Russell assured her, but he glanced at the gravestones and shivered. It was quite comical seeing a grown man shiver like that, but Ellen concealed her barks of laugher. "Now come on, Gang," he said cheerfully, "let's split up and look for clues! That was we can find Mr. Fiji faster. Crystal and I will go together, and Silver, Gold, and Fiery Sapphire can go together."

"Wouldn't it be easier if we just all walked to the top?" asked the youngest Anti-Trainer. Immediately the man just put his hand out and turned away, not even regarding her suggestion.

He closed his eyes thoughtfully and ran a hand through his dark brown hair. "Alright. Who's the leader here?"

"Uh…you?"

"Yeah. And who's the girl who has a very important job but still can't boss me around?"

"Me?"

"Good. And who in charge of the Anti-Trainers?"

"_You…_"

"Hey, right! Now…I'm confused…are you sure the guy who leads is me?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, okay. So, let's get this straight- I make up the rules, and _you_ follow them. Deal?"

"Whatever…_Giovanni_."

Russell opened his eyes, turned a deep shade of scarlet, and scowled at her, his eyebrows furrowing. He lifted a finger and opened his mouth to say something, but Miguel tugged on Ellen's arm and pulled her away from the scene.

"Alrighty," Gold said cheerfully, now pulling the girl up the steps, "let's go upstairs now to look for clues!" His grin turned to clenched teeth and he hissed, "Right?"

The girl replied with a feral growl.

The bookworm let go of her and backed up a few steps, letting her tug her arm away and stomp up the steps followed by her confused Pokémon. "Whoa there, Arcanine."

"Calm down," Charles said, patting her on the back softly. "What's wrong? Still mad about Silph Co.?"

She snorted with sarcastic laughter and turned back to look at him, scratching the back of her head. "What? Oh, that? Hell no. I'm just…just…mad that I don't know what to do."

"Huh?" grunted Feolan.

"Well…" she struggled for the right words. "It's like this. I'm an Anti-Trainer, right?" Her Pokémon nodded. "And here I am collecting frickin badges. Badges? I mean seriously, we don't need no stinking badges! And that Rayquaza- why do I need his help? I mean, I can handle the Rockets my own damn self!"

Miguel overheard her and smiled grimly. "I know, I know...You think Rocket Headquarters will be a piece of cake. Well it isn't. The have that HQ on lock down every second, day and night."

"You've been there?"

"Nah, heck no," he said sadly, combing a hand through his sand blond hair, "Russell told me about it, though. Said it was pretty bad. Worse then Silph Co- see; that's when Russ got his arm- well…you know." He made a slicing motion with his hand across the middle of his lank arm.

Kyoshi's eyes furrowed and her ears perked. "I wonder how it happened. Ellen…?" She looked up at her friend hopefully with large, almond-shaped eyes.

"How'd it happen?" Ellen asked shyly, bending down to examine a moss-covered urn in hopes of a clue. Samara got down with her and dug against another gravestone while Miguel paced the floor, sighing.

"Um…that Rhydon got him in Silph Co."

The teen stood up. "_That_ Rhydon. You mean…" She tailed off and squinted.

"Yeah…Giovanni's."

"THAT'S FUNNY." Phil said loudly.

"Damn," Ellen mumbled, staring daggers at him. "Great. Now I feel guilty."

Silver stood up and stretched, leaning her frail body to one side. "Aww, it's alright. Russ- I mean, _Red_ is just sensitive even though he's big and brawny. He's just a huge softie on the inside."

"Amen to _that_," Miguel said as he began to walk the staircase, but something suddenly stopped him. As if from nowhere, something large and purple materialized from thin air right in front of the man, with large, yellow eyes and a toothy grin. Everyone stood dead still, staring at the ghost. They had seen others floating; Ghastlys and Haunter for instance, but those never bothered them.

Gold stumbled backwards and let out a cry of surprise as the ghost brought it claw-like hands up and uttered, "Begone…Bbbbbeeeeeggggoooonnnnneeeee frroooommmmmm hhhhhhheeeeeeee…oooohhhh…blablablablablabla thhhhiiiiisssss ssssshhhhhiiiiitttttt iiiiissssss bbbbbaaaaaannnnnaaaaannnnnaaaaasssss...bbbb-aaaaa-nnnnn-aaaaa-nnnnn-aaaa-sssssss..."

"El…Ell…Ellen?" asked Phil in a whisper, shaking all over. His voice came out in short bursts and chirps. "You…you have the Silph…Scope, ra…right?"

The Anti-Trainer made a whimpering noise and nodded.

"Then _use it_."

She shakily reached for her backpack, not daring to make any sudden movements and unzipped it, puling out the telescope-like object. As she raised it up to her eye, the ghost flickered suddenly, and then began to flicker rapidly. Its mouth turned hostile as it flashed faster and faster and faster until…

"_A MAROWAK_?" exclaimed Gold.

Samara shook her head. "Zoinks! Not just any Marowak. That's the mother that Team Rocket killed…"

"Friggin' psychos," Ellen muttered under her breath, as the figure of the Pokémon shimmered and she stepped up to it, clearing her throat. The Marowak floated above the ground, bone poised in mid-air to attack. "Uh, hi. Listen, we'd be happy to avenge your death and all, but we need to get to the top floor to defeat the Rockets and save Mr. Fiji."

"If the Rocketsss killed me, then they'll kill him," she hissed, narrowing her blank and dead eyes. "Everyone who is up there hasss the same fate asss I do."

"Aww, don't be vengeful or anything, lady! We're gonna save your kids. Just let us up there!"

"Neverrrr…you have to batttllleee me to get thereee…"

Charles, Phil, and Kyoshigot into ninja positions, Miguel hid, and Samara freaked out.

The Pokémon stepped up to face her and exchanged nervous glances. "Look, Mrs. Marowak," Feolan inquired as peacefully as he could, and clasped his front paws together on the ground, "we don't wanna stir up trouble or anything, it's just we need to get to the top of the Tower. It's for the good of all Pokémon, see."

"Pah. For the good of Pokémon my tail bone," the mother returned grumpily, crossed her arms and floated out to one side. "I'm sick of being scary. Just save my kids, okay? And be quick, because I can't hang around this world forever." The group obeyed her with whispers and shouts of 'thanks!' and 'We won't let you down!' but the Marowak just hurried them along by glaring. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I'm merciful, now just _move_! Crazy humans, and their albino Mightyena too…"

Ellen ascended up a set of cobweb-strewn, rickety steps to the next floor, just as strange and empty as the last one. They continued on, stepping over gravestones and dodging playful sprites who cackled and swooped through the rafters. Ellen asked, "So you really think my plan's a good one? We just go to the top of the tower?"

Miguel looked upward and pushed his glasses back to his forehead, only to have them slip down again. He frowned and chewed his bottom lip, finally coming up with a good answer. "Makes sense to me; we didn't find any 'clues' anyway. Besides, we haven't found anything yet."

Phil had hitched a ride on Charles' head and was sitting between his two bony crests. The Mudkip nodded. "Well, _I_ always thought it was a good idea," he said sweetly, as his nature was.

The top of the Tower was signified by a complete lack of tombstones, in the middle of the floor; instead, they formed almost a mowed path leading up to a slightly raised circle of wood surrounded by a slightly large alcove. Most importantly, it was deserted. There was no sign of the Rockets or Mr. Fiji, and the more advanced Anti-Trainers thought this suspicious, as Team Rocket was dangerously clever when it came to surprise attacks.

Feolan bent his head low to the ground, pressed his nose against the floor, and began to weave about the urns, snuffing occasionally. "They're here alright; with Mr. Fiji and some Cubone, too. I can smell 'em."

"Why the hell do you know what Team Rocket smells like?" Ellen asked unbelievingly.

The Wolf Pokémon exhibited a trademark Feolan Grin and went back to sniffing. "Rockets…smell like cheap perfume, cigarettes, and alcohol. You don't even need by kind of nose to pick it up."

Indeed, the choking scent of cigarette smoke reached the group. Charles coughed loudly and sneezed, giving all the more reason for Kyoshi to whip around and put a claw to her lips, shushing him harshly. The Charizard smiled meekly as another cough broke the silence.

"Sorry," he said in a hoarse whisper, "I'm allergic to smoke."

Everyone rolled their eyes.

Distinct voices traveled around the alcove of the room, and everyone snapped to attention. With a groan, footsteps sounded.

A Grunt stepped out from behind a wall, a cigarette dangling from her glossed lips. She looked up at Ellen, took the cigarette from her mouth with her forefinger and thumb, dropped it, and whispered, "Oh, shit."

"What's wrong?" Another male grunt stepped out and his eyes snapped open. "Motherf-" He jumped out in the open and fumbled in his pocket for a Pokéball, occasionally glancing up nervously. "Don't move," he called in a shaky voice; obviously an inexperienced Grunt, while his female counterpart also was digging in her pockets. "Or…or…I'll sic my Pokémon…on…you…"

"We need some assistance, please," whimpered the other Grunt, and turned to the corner. She bit her lip and swept a hasty glance at the Anti-Trainers, who were all staring at her out of pure shock. Team Rocket? Not dangerous? Ha!

Miguel brought his hand to his forehead and sighed. "Is it me, or is Team Rocket getting more and more pathetic everyday?"

"We're all pathetic on the inside, man; _own it_," Phil said.

Finally, a familiar voice answered the Grunt. "WHAT IN MEW'S NAME IS YOUR PROBLEM?" a male voice screamed, and a mangy, white-eyed Pikachu scuttled out from the corner, brought its paw up, and hissed to reveal large fangs. "What's wrong with you guys? It's simple! You can't even catch some shitty little Cubone?"

A man came behind the Pikachu; also smoking; wearing a black suit accompanied by a pair of slim, black boots which made him look quite a bit taller than he really was. He looked around, raised his eyebrows, and then looked at the group.

"Oh shit," Donovan Kyler said.

* * *

SWEET MOTHER CHEESES, FLAMEBOO JUST DID ONE OF THOSE FRICKIN' ANNOYING CLIFFHANGERS, WILLTHE MADNESS EVER END!1!question mark? 

You know who you have to admire? A Catholic hit man who blesses himself just before he strangles someone.

-_George Carlin_

Sorry, I just like that quote. Anyway, sorry for that pretty short chapter, (and abrupt ending,) but I originally had a full chapter. I'm going on vacation tomorrow for about a week, so I had to get something done fast. Guess what? I can still write on vacation, though, so expect a fully functional chapter after about a week. Well…um…hey! CHEESE! And…um…SCHOOL'S OUT FOR THE SUMMER! WHOOT!

_A Note from some Frickin' Safety Lady_

Remember kiddies, when you're out walking late at night, nnneeevvveeerrr eeevvvveeeerrr trust boot-wearing men with knives. Remember that, and you'll have a super-de-duper summer!

(Waves goodbye; gets hit with a large brick and dies.)


	27. Knives

Sup? Chapter on the way; if you don't like it, then I DON'T GIVE A DAMN! But I'd be very happy if you actually did like it. Well, here it is, and….REVIEW!

P.S- I own all my characters; you know who I'm talking about. Almost everyone. I don't own the term 'Agent 00Sexy.' I don't own Pokémon either. You know what would be cool? If I owned a Charmander. That would be fun. He could walk around with me and my friends would be like 'EXCELLENT!' I'd also like to have a Ditto. Then I could name it Flubber.

* * *

Fiery Sapphire

Ch. 27

Knives

"ZOINKS!" screamed Marylyn, jumping into Russell's arms only to be dropped seconds later. The leader of the Anti-Trainers rolled his eyes and continued to walk through the Pokémon Tower.

"What was the excuse _this_ time?" Russell asked as his comrade brushed the dust off her pants. He glanced at his left arm anxiously, a replica of a normal human arm except for the obvious presence of metal. "You know my arm can't take the kind of…um…weight."

Marylyn shot him a burning glance. "It was a Haunter this time. You just didn't see it," she explained defiantly, despite disbelieving glances from Red, "and besides; wasn't that mechanical arm supposed to be, oh, you know, _stronger_?"

The man grinned ruggedly and picked up a stray rock, crushing it in his mechanical fist with ease. It was reduced to a grayish powder and he emptied it onto the floor. "You mean like this…?"

"Alright, alright, so I stand corrected. But anyway…" she snapped the gum she was chewing noisily, and whipped a piece of black hair from her face, "can we _please_ just get to the top of the Tower? Ellen's-"

"Fiery Sapphire. Codenames."

"Right. I mean, _Fiery Sapphire_'s idea was pretty good. Why not follow through with it? I'm sure the Rockets are up at the top."

"Clues…" Red reminded her sternly. "What if Mr. Fiji's actually somewhere else? You can _never_ be too careful. Anti-Trainer rule number twenty-six."

"But I'm tired. This floor smells funny. My hair is deflating. I'm still hungry. I want to go back to Celadon. My feet hurt. I'm scared. My breath smells bad. We haven't even found any clues yet!"

"Well," Russell said slowly, climbing a set of stairs, "maybe the clues are up higher, hmm?"

"But what if, like, one thousand Rockets are up there?" Marylyn screamed, running around in circles, pulling at her hair. Apparently she had gone back to drinking. "WHAT IF FIERY AND GOLD AND SILVER ARE ALREADY UP THERE AND THEY'VE ALREADY BEEN KILLED BY GRUNTS?"

"Uh…" he frowned and considered the hypothesis. It _was_ reasonable.

"OR WHAT IF, WHAT IF…LIKE, THE EXECUTIVES COME UP AND START SPREADING JAM ON THEM? HUH? _HUH_? THEN THEY'D BE, LIKE, JAM-IFIED! THAT'D BE _REAL_ NIFTY!"

Now her ideas were just influenced by alcohol. The woman had produced a can of beer from her pocket and was sipping it quietly. "Marylyn, put down that can of beer right now…" he warned her, "remember Anti-Trainer rule number fifty-nine: no drinking alcohol a mission!"

She finished the can and dropped it on the ground, putting her hands out in mock defeat. "ALRIGHT, LAST ONE! WHAT IF GIOVANNI IS THERE HIMSELF AND HE, LIKE, YOU KNOW, _SHOT_ THEM?"

Red narrowed his eyes. "Stop right there," he snarled in a warning tone.

Crystal wouldn't stop, though. She took another swig of beer and stuck out her tongue. "Nya na na na na! Shot 'em, shot 'em, shot 'em!"

Russell clamped his hands over his ears and shut his eyes. "FINE! We'll just run up to the top! But when we get there, you're going to see how right I really am." Crystal just giggled like a complete idiot, stumbled across the floor, and bumped into the man.

"Bother!" she said happily.

Red sighed and rolled his eyes. Suddenly, there was a loud thumping noise from the top of the tower. Someone screamed. He looked up for a few seconds, raised an eyebrow, and shrugged. "Hmm," he muttered, "I wonder how that happened..."

* * *

The loud thumping noise was Miguel being pushed to the ground by Donovan. The group had seen the Rocket Executive and scattered across the floor in all directions. Miguel and Donovan, being long-time rivals, had locked into a chaotic fistfight, Samara had gone off to look for Mr. Fiji, along with Ellen and her Pokémon. 

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU, YOU DIRTY BASTARD!" Donovan screamed, ramming the tip of his boot into Gold's shin. Miguel released a gasp of pain and staggered back, clutching his leg. Donovan stalked forward and drew out his knife. "It's over, man."

Miguel began to flee but tripped over a stray gravestone and rolled onto the floor. Seeing his chance at victory, the Executive dove at his rival and hit the floor, barely missing him. "What's wrong with you?" Gold yelled hoarsely. "We're not in college anymore! Why do you hate me so much?"

"I'm part of Team Rocket now! _You're_ the enemy; Gold! You and your teammates."

"What-?" Donovan punched Miguel on the arm and rammed him against a tombstone, smashing his open palm into Gold's nose. Blood spurted instantly.

"YOU WERE ALWAYS BETTER THAN ME!" he yelled, "I was smart; I was popular; but you were always better! _I got stuffed in a broom closet, for God's sake_!" The two were now on the ground, swinging fists, kicking, and stabbing- in Donovan's case. The Rocket Executive looked wild, there were rings below his eyes, he had faint stubble, and a small scar reached from his right nostril to his upper lip.

"Why the broom closet?" taunted Miguel, his glasses cracked. One lens had disappeared and the other was split glass making a small incision below his left eye. He grinned as Donovan's features faltered. "What? Did you get in '_detention_?' Did you get in _trouble_?"

"SHUT UP!" he screamed. "I HATE YOU! _I HATE YOU_!"

"Did you do something wrong? Huh; did you? Come on, Donovan, you can tell me. I'm your friend. We're college buddies."

He was egging him on. Everyone was egging him on. Everyone did that. Why? Why did they do that? What was wrong with him? Why had Gold ruined his life? He didn't do anything to him directly. Who had sucked away the last drop of dignity that he had?

"_SHUT UP_!" Donovan hooked his rival on the jaw, there was a small cracking noise, and Gold coughed. A tooth flew across the floor.

As they reached the stairwell leading down to one of the lower floors, Miguel brought both his feet back like a spring and shut his eyes tight. With a roar, he kicked his legs out and hit Donovan squarely in the stomach.

The Rocket gasped in pain as he doubled backwards and wheezed, clutching his middle. He looked up at Miguel, mouthed a cuss, and plummeted down the stairs. The look on his face was pure horror as the hand which held his knife went limb and coiled around his calf. His head slammed against the banister and there was a wet cracking sound. The knife slipped. There was a glint of sharp metal, an earsplitting scream, and then nothing.

* * *

Meanwhile, Ellen was running across the floor, jumping over headstones and dodging urns while her Pokémon followed suit. Samara had already turned the sharp corner where the cowardly Grunts were hiding; and when Ellen turned the corner, she saw a surprising sight. 

The male Grunt was plastered to the wall in horror, staring with his eyes wide open at Samara who had the female Grunt in a nasty headlock. Mr. Fiji sat to the side, bound and gagged with a small group of shivering Cubone surrounding him.

"Fiery!" Samara barked, "Quick, untie Mr. Fiji! Don't worry about the Grunt- he's just a scardy cat. Just get Fiji out of here!"

The girl obeyed her and grabbed the old man's binds. She gave them a sharp tug, but the rope was too thick, and gave another pull to the upper rope. Nothing happened.

"Here," Kyoshi said calmly, and sliced the rope neatly in half with her claw. Ellen flashed her a relieved grin and tore the gag from Fiji, who coughed and sputtered, shaking his head.

"In all my days," he rasped in a nasally voice, "I never- Rockets kidnapping! Why, when I was young, Team Rocket didn't even exist! Actually, the word 'mafia' wasn't even invented! All we had were good, clean, drive-by shootings and the occasional maiming. None of this fancy 'kidnapping' or 'group torture' stuff; oh no, we had _individuals_ do the crimes. Come to think of it, we didn't even have _food_ back then. We ate our socks! That's why we had to walk 3425464 miles to school, barefoot, and IN THE SNOW! You know how that feels? To be walking in ice cold, biting, stinging-"

"SHUT UP!"

Fiji immediately clamped his wrinkled mouth shut and glared at her. Samara was loosing energy and held down the Grunt with much less vigor as the Grunt's male counterpart was still shaking. She motioned for Ellen to get Fiji out of the building, and the young Anti-Trainer pulled on his arm.

"Come on, Mr. Fiji, time to go," she said hurriedly, and Phil tugged on his pants leg. The elder wheezed as he stood, the breath escaping him in a loud _whoosh_. He frowned at her cantankerously, clutched the small of his back, and doubled over.

He growled and pulled up his pants to his mid-torso. "I'm. Not. Finished. Speaking. Anyways, why, back when I was in my green, we didn't _have_ candy! We had cereal. Ahh, cereal with its sweet, sweet milk. But then candy was invented! Hey, have you seen my stapler? It's small and convenient. I really need my stapler."

"Hot damn, it's time to go!"

"No! I'm not leaving this Tower and my stapler to Team Rocket!"

Samara pushed the now-unconscious female Grunt aside. The male took one look at his fallen comrade and screamed, arms flailing wildly as he ran away. "Well, that takes care of the Grunts," the woman said, standing beside Mr. Fiji. "Here; I'll take him down. I used to work at a nursing home."

"Didn't you say you were a nurse before?"

The woman winked and walked the old man across the room, the Cubone hobbling behind them like ducks. "I'm a generally caring person."

Meanwhile, Ellen and her pals stood in the corner, stupefied.

"So…what do we do now?" Feolan asked. "We're standing out in the open; perfect targets."

Kyoshi blinked. "Feolan said something oddly intelligent for his I.Q. Maybe we should." The Persian shrugged. "Or we should help Miguel."

Suddenly there was a harsh, thunderous scream, and a series of thumps and crashes. Phil was the first to react, sprinting across the floor as fast as he short legs could carry him. The rest of the group ran off after him and all dove behind a small mausoleum.

"What the hell was that?" gulped the Mightyena, his tongue lolling from his ashen muzzle. He rested himself against the back of the crypt. "It sounded like someone _died_ or something."

"I'm scared," Phil whimpered, and Kyoshi trotted over to console him.

"It was just the wind," she claimed, but everyone knew she was lying.

Charles began to mumble nonsensically to himself, frightened, and gripped his claws together. "What are we gonna do?" He began to rock back and forth as Feolan picked his nose. "We can't just hide back here for ever. Holy Mew, we're finished."

"Yeah," Feolan agreed shakily, flicking a glob of snot across the room. "I'm gonna start my will. I leave all my curtains to Kyoshi, my attitude to Ellen, my dignity to Phil…and nada to Charles."

"Thanks."

"No problem, Charles."

"Come on, guys," Ellen urged them, shifting her position into a crouch and peeking over the tombstone. "We got to do something. I don't see anyone. Where's Miguel and Donovan? And Russell and Marylyn?"

"Mother cheeses," whispered Phil fearfully. "Donovan Jr. ATE them! Now all that's left is their bones scattered across the floor and their flesh is slowly rotting away as the Pikachu tears at their brains! We're next…!"

Kyoshi wrinkled her nose disdainfully. "You're quite morbid for a Mudkip."

"That's because my dad is a Tyranitar! He liked to tell me gory stories about the Pizza War and how lots of Pokémon were decapitated. Blood gushed everywhere."

Everyone stared at him.

Across the room, someone was gasping for air, coughing; a sickening cough that sounded raw. There were heavy footsteps dragging themselves across the floor. The figure stumbled and dropped to the ground with a loud thud, but stabled itself and resumed staggering.

"It's Donovan Jr," Phil hissed. "I told you! I told you, it's going to eat us all-" Feolan slapped a paw over the Mudkip's mouth and hushed him loudly.

Ellen rested her chin on her knees and picking at the gauze on her arm. The figure had become still and the floor sounded empty, but whatever the case she should still keep her guard up. After all, in all clichéd cemeteries, things were just ready to jump out at you.

Charles seemed anxious too, and flexed his cramped wings diligently. "Maybe we should see if everyone's okay," he said, concerned.

"They're all dead," Feolan exclaimed cheerfully, ignoring the burning glare from Kyoshi.

The Persian mewed thoughtfully and voiced a plan. All of them would run out at the same time. It was efficient- as Kyoshi had always been an efficient sort of Pokémon- the group would be together and there was little danger of getting hurt. Thus, everyone agreed.

"Ready?" she breathed, her lithe arms flat against the stone of the mausoleum. Feolan was already as taught as a spring, ready to jump out; but unfortunately Charles was a clumsy lizard and kept on knocking everybody over. As soon as everyone was in an eased position, Kyoshi began to count. "Up to five. One…two…thr-"

"_ARGHHH!_"

The yell came from Ellen who felt a searing pain in her scalp and realized someone was yanking her hair with brute force. In one fell movement, she was pulled over the tomb, forced upright, and rammed against a wall. A knife was pressed against her throat so harshly that she had to tilt her head back to avoid harm. The blade felt oddly wet.

Donovan stood before her, wide-eyed and almost desperate looking, breathing heavily. The left side of his head was split and blood coursed down his face, and his left eye would blink rapidly as the vile liquid contaminated it. His teeth were clenched together in rage; maybe even in pain.

"Get offa me!" Ellen growled, but didn't move. It was confusing. She hadn't seen Donovan coming. He was no where to be found, and then…All the noises. That person walking around the floor; it must have been him.

Donovan replied with a throaty chuckle that sounded a bit forced. "Did you think you could slip away _that_ easily? Bull your way through Silph Co and just walk away like that? Make a fool out of me; make fools out of all of us? No way, the last thing you'll see ain't victory. Do you know what it is?"

Ellen ignored him and her neck twitched. She was sure that he had been the figure…but it walked with sort of a limp, like it was dragging its foot. The Anti-Trainer looked down at both his legs, and immediately flicked her eyes to his right calf. His pants leg had been torn and there was a large, vertical gash where the muscle was, fairly new. She thought of the knife again. But why would Donovan stab himself on purpose? And with his own knife?

"_DON'T LOOK AT THAT_!" the Rocket screamed, soon realizing she had found where his knife betrayed him. He yanked her head up until he was sure she had eye contact with him and pressed the dagger against her with more force, beaming. He reeked of alcohol and cigarettes. "_The last thing you'll see is me grinning when I ram this knife into your throat!_ You ruined me. You ruined my _life_. I hate you." His eyes narrowed and the olive pupils pierced her as if they were blades themselves. He continued hissing these sorts of threats at her, as her Pokémon finally noticed what had happened.

"Ellen!" Feolan yelled, uttering a low growl. Donovan turned around to gaze at the Pokémon, smirked, and with his free hand grabbed the back of Ellen's neck and pushed her forward.

The Pokémon stopped dead. They knew Donovan was threatening them with their Anti-Trainer's life. It was a sort of lose-lose situation, a catch twenty-two; even though the creatures were far more powerful than the Rocket, it seemed he was more powerful then them at the time.

"Are you ready to die?" the Executive hissed in her ear, turning the blade so that it made a small nick in the Anti-Trainer's throat. A trickle of blood ran down her neck. "Ready?"

_This guy is fricking crazy. Enough standing around_, though Ellen, taking deep breaths, _I need to do something_. She looked at Charles. "Charles!" she literally snarled in Pokéish to disguise the plan she was concocting. She grabbed the Charizard's attention. "Go find Russell and the rest. I'll try and get free!"

With surprising agility, the Rocket rammed the heel of his boot onto Ellen's foot, and yelled at her to be quiet. The teen released a gasp. Donovan _was_ impressed that the Anti-Trainer possessed such skills as speaking with Pokémon, but that made matters a bit more difficult. And besides, the fun was wearing thin; he felt better now that he had found and could destroy the crux of his problems.

"Let's end this," he hissed maliciously, but didn't expect what would happen next. Ellen had seen what his own knife had done to him. That was enough to escape.

The Anti-Trainer swung back her foot and rammed it into his wounded leg with all her might, tearing away from him at the same time. The effect was better than she hoped- the man collapsed on the floor with a scream, but wheeled his head around to face her.

His face curled into anguish more than anger. "NO!" Donovan screamed painfully, swinging his knife through the air. He tried to stand, but his leg bucked and hit the ground. "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! HE'LL KILL ME! He'll kill me…"

His voice died away as Ellen mounted Charles. She had no sympathy left for Donovan. The Charizard flapped his great wings and sped across the room, Feolan trailing along the ground wildly as Donovan Jr. nipped at their heels, seemingly trying to avenge his trainer.

"Where to?" gasped Charles, flexing his wings so that he could cruse through the stairwell with little turbulence. Phil clamped his webbed paws over his eyes and began to whimper as Donovan Jr. jumped up and opened its large mouth to reveal sharp, yellow fangs. The Mudkip ducked just before the Pikachu latched on to him and the rodent flew through the air, smashing against a tombstone.

Ellen smirked at Donovan Jr. and flipped it off. "Let's find the Anti-Trainers."

* * *

The Anti-Trainers turned out to be standing on the fifth floor, crowding around someone. Charles swooped in, rather awkwardly, and landed on the floor with a thud. No one seemed to notice, though, besides Miguel, the center of attention. His glasses were cracked and shattered, most of his limbs were bruised up, and he held an ice-pack on his head. 

The moment he saw Ellen his eyes brightened and he pointed at her. "Hey guys, there she is! I told you she would come back soon." The Anti-Trainers all turned around to face her simultaneously. All were silent.

"HIYA GUYS!" Phil screamed, waving wildly.

Russell ran up to them, frantic, and breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, good, you're here- we were really worried. Are all your Pokémon here? Yup, all accounted for. Okay, we need to get out of here."

"What the hell?" the teenager sputtered, taken aback. "But I just fragged Donovan! He's up on the top floor! We're okay, we saved the Tower!"

"No, it's not like that, even if you did…'frag' Donovan," he said quickly as the group began to hurry downstairs. "The Grunt that left- the male one- he called for back-up. And LOTS of it. Fiery, we can't handle that many Rockets."

"But what about Silph Co and the Rocket HQ?"

Red shook his head harshly. "We failed both of them. And when I say failed; I mean _really, really_ bombed."

"Atomic?" Feolan guessed.

"Nah, has to be Nuke," Charles said.

"I eat Molotov Cocktails for breakfast," Phil roared in a squeaky voice.

Suddenly, the girl remembered a question she'd been meaning to ask Russell. Ellen reached for her necklace and clung on to it. "Red?" she asked, taking off the FS and showing it to him. "What can you tell me about this necklace?"

His eyes flickered from the necklace to Ellen, and his face twisted into confusion. "I don't know. I've never seen it before. Nice touch, though."

"Sure?"

He nodded and began a conversation with Marylyn.

The chat seemed to be over, and Ellen looked back at the dull surroundings of the Pokémon Tower. Russell didn't know about the necklace, and yet he was upset by the name Fiery Sapphire. It didn't connect at all. She listed all the possibilities. Red could be lying…but that man didn't know how to lie. He only knew how to deny. Was Kaden even associated with the Anti-Trainers, or did he just walk out of the house one day and disappear? Things were getting harder to understand…

As soon as the group was out the door and in the now-busy town of Lavender, they stopped to catch their breath. Ellen looked around, expecting a group of Grunts encircling them. But nothing seemed dangerous.

"Hey!" the teenager stormed. "I thought more Rockets would come! We ran out of the Tower for nothing?"

Russell scratched his chin. "They can't go here _that_ fast, Fiery. Rule number one for Anti-Trainers: always be on your guard. Rule number two: be patient. Rule number-"

"I bet you're just making these up as you go along."

Red frowned and sunk his head, blushing. "Maybe," he muttered guiltily. "Now come on, let's go see Mr. Fiji."

* * *

The old man was still ranting when they found him in his house. 

"Well I never," he began again when the Anti-Trainers walked in. He pointed to Russell's arm and looked upon the man as if he were pure evil. "We didn't _have_ mechanical arms when I was your age, young man! Why, we just had good, clean amputation! And you know what we didn't have either? Helicopters. We didn't have liquids either. Or shelter. Or nutrition. Or li-"

Samara smiled and pushed Miguel and Ellen forward to face the old man who was now drooling. "Mr. Fiji, these people are Mig-ell and Ell-in. They both risked their lives for you and your Pokémon. Do you want to say something to them? Maybe…'thank-you?'

"Hibble bibble snot," Fiji mumbled, handing some sort of flute to Kyoshi. The Persian raised an eyebrow and held in it her mouth. "I…I'd like…to say…"

"Yes…?" Samara smiled and nodded.

The old man still struggled for words, and Marylyn and Russell looked frightened. Would they be like _that_ one day?

"I'm never going to get old," Red claimed, running his hand through his thick brown hair. "Look. See, Crystal? No gray! Ha-ha! I bet Giovanni already dies his hair. I mean, how can a man keep jet black hair _that_ perfect? I'm sure he dyes it. Will any answer my question?"

Fiji finally coughed up his feelings and smiled shyly. "I'd like to…to…say…CHEESY PICKLES!"

Charles slapped a claw to his forehead. "For the love of Mew…"

"Thank you, Mr. Fiji. Now, it's time to take your medicine." Samara instructed, leading him away with a bottle of large pills in her hand.

As he was walking away, the old man turned around, waved a fist in the air, and screamed, "I…I…I belie…I believe you HAVE MY STAPLER!

Russell and Marylyn shivered and started praying.

"What the hell is this stapler- I mean _flute_ for?" Ellen asked, taking it from Kyoshi and inspecting it.

"Hey! Why did I get anything? I was the one who fought with Donovan and got K.O'd!" Miguel said, crossing his arms. He pointed at the girl accusingly. "All she did was get threatened by a knife!"

On cue, Fiji hobbled back in and gave Gold a hug. "Who wants hot chocolate?" the old man asked randomly, holding out mugs for everyone and passing out on the floor.

Samara ran up to him and helped him to his feet. "Uh…I think Mr. Fiji still wants to say something. _Right?_"

Fiji drooled and babbled.

"I think Red wants to say something, too," Marylyn growled, elbowing him consciously and winking.

Russell furrowed his eyebrows and reached into his pocket to pull out a crumpled piece of paper which he held up to read. "Umm," he began, squinting, "Because Fiery Sapphire was really, really _awesome_ today…the Anti-Trainers don't have to help her out on most missions anymore." He frowned and stopped reading. "Alright, so that's not _all_ true. You can't go to the Rocket Headquarters alone. Deal?"

Ellen grumbled a reply. She already _knew_ he could do it herself. "Whatever."

"And, one more thing…" he held up the paper again. "Huh…Crystal is _hot_? Crystal is _hotter than you_? Crystal will now be called _Agent 00Sexy!_?" He crushed the paper in his fist and threw it into the wastebasket across the room. "Alright, who wrote this speech?"

Marylyn giggled.

Red rolled his eyes. "I should have known. Well, I guess it's time to go back now."

And after they had all said their goodbyes, the Anti-Trainers mounted the male Duchess again and flew clumsily off into the distance, Miguel almost falling off the bird. Mr. Fiji started to chase after them, screaming about his stapler.

"Where do we go next?" Kyoshi asked.

Ellen opened up a map that she never used and held it upside down. "FUCHSIA CITY!" she screamed happily, "MY HOMETOWN!"

"I bet it's a dump," Feolan snorted, earning a noogie from Charles.

"No way! We have frickin' awesome stuff there, like a beach and the Safari Zone. Oh! And there's this old guy called the Warren who only speaks in Gibberish! Fuchsia is the Passion Pink City," the girl said brightly.

Her Pokémon burst out laughing.

"You came from the pink city?" choked Phil, rolling on the ground laughing.

Ellen began to fume and flipped them all off, one by one. "Hey! At least I didn't come from that damn Pallet Town and got a Pikachu as my first Pokémon! At least I don't hang around with that preppy Misty and the perverted Brock! At least Team Rocket doesn't go 'Team Rocket is blasting off again!' At least my Pokémon have brains and don't go: 'Oh! Char, char, Charizard!' all day."

Charles smirked at her, smoke crawling out of his nostrils. "Char…char…_char_…"

"Char…char…shitface…char…right back at ya!" she growled, narrowing her eyes. The Anti-Trainer stuck her face up to the Charizard's.

"Meh. Well, char, char, char, char, char."

"Charcharcharcharcharcharcharcharcharchar!"

"CHARCHARCHARCHARCHARCHARCHARCHAR!"

"I'M GONNA KICK YOUR ASS!" the Anti-Trainer tackled Charles, who bumped into Feolan, who crashed into Kyoshi, who fell on Phil. The group sat in the crossroad of Lavender Town, and then all laughed as Mr. Fiji returned, smiling, with a stapler in his hand and a Cubone by his side.

"I found my stapler," he said happily.

* * *

Hiya. Sup? You can't answer me, haha! 

(Sniff, sniff) Sigh…I'm more then half-way through the story…it saddens me…alright, I won't get emotional. Anyways, HAHA, I HAVE PLOT TWISTS IN TH FUTURE! MWAHAHAHAHA! You know what you'll have to do? Read to find out. And REVIEW!

P.S- The Fuchsia Gym is going to be funny…and I've already introduced three characters to you for the Gym…


	28. Attack of the Fuzzy Bunnies!

(You know I almost always have to do something with the Rockets now, right? Well, here it is.)

We're having some heavy duty treachery, here, and Donovan's doing something illegial…

* * *

Fiery Sapphire

Ch. 28

Attack of the Fuzzy Bunnies!

It felt strange for Donovan to be sitting in his own office again in Rocket Headquarters, and even stranger for him to be using crutches after slashing his leg with his own knife. It was a good thing that back-up had come to the Pokémon Tower, or else he might have still be there. But he was nervous. He had failed his mission; he had let the Cubone _and_ the Anti-Trainers get away. Again. And was wounded in the process, so that definitely counted against him.

His knuckles were already bone-white from gripping the arms of his chair, and he glanced hesitantly at the door. There was no sign of anyone. Donovan Jr. crept up onto the desktop and made a grab at a stray pen, gnawing on it like some deranged puppy. The Pikachu looked up at his worried owner and blinked its blank eyes.

"Brains," it growled softly, throwing the pen down. "Brains. Brains. Brainsbrainsbrains." Recently the small, electric rodent had suffered a cracked skull when it rammed into a tombstone; but Donovan Jr. didn't really care; it already had a one-track mind that centered around the word: _brain._

"Jesus, Donovan Jr!" The Pikachu had sunk its teeth into one of Donovan's crutches and was now splitting it in half. The Rocket executive caught the creature by the tail and tossed it on the floor. Amazingly, it bounced for a few seconds before stopping at a wall, and that's when someone knocked on the door.

Donovan looked carefully up, took a shallow breath, and gathered his courage. "Come in," he croaked, just loud enough.

The door opened, and he let out a sigh of relief. Troy walked in, sporting an expensive-looking dress suit. She still had the same celebrity worthy smile and wore the same strange pair of rimmed glasses.

"Alright," she said calmly, sitting in a chair opposite of him and leaning back, "Giovanni couldn't come right now. So, do you want the good news or the bad news first?"

"Good news."

"You're getting demoted again!" she replied cheerfully, flashing him a grin.

Donovan looked horrified. "Bu-but that's not good news!"

"Well, let's just say it was _way_ better than Giovanni originally planned for you," Troy explained, "Gi-Gi can be a bit harsh at times; it's a good thing I changed it."

"Really?" the other Executive smiled. It was pretty rare for Troy to be so nice to him. "Thanks a bunch. I rea-"

Suddenly she burst into a fit of crazed laughter. "_I'M JUST KIDDING_!" she shrieked, as Donovan's face fell. "Gi-Gi was originally going to give you one more chance, but I suggested you be demoted. You just had too many chances already." Troy stopped laughing and smirked at him hatefully.

His blood boiled furiously, and he said through clenched teeth, "So…what's…the…_BAD_…news?"

"We caught Mew."

"THAT'S NOT BAD NEWS," Donovan screamed, and abruptly stood up. His bad leg gave out and he toppled back into his chair with a gasp.

Troy shrugged and ignored the minor incident. "It's great news for the majority of Team Rocket, but bad news for you."

"And…why's…that?"

"Well…" she pondered for a minute, pouted her scarlet lips, and raised her eyebrows. "For one thing, you don't get the privilege of attending the meeting about Mew."

"Oh darn," the Rocket said sarcastically.

"The meeting is mandatory, though."

"Shucks, I'm disappointed."

"Mandatory means that you _have_ to go."

"I know what it means!" Donovan stormed. "What's your point?"

"Since you're not allowed to go, and the meeting is mandatory…well…it's not going to look very good on your report," Troy explained snidely, folding her hands on the desk and leaning forward, speaking softly now. "And when that happens, Gi-Gi will be _veerryyy, veeerrrryyy_, angry with you. And we can't demote you to be a Grunt, no; you're too intelligent to be one. So we might just have to fire you…"

"For God's sake, Troy!" Now Donovan grabbed his crutches and really did stand up, but the other executive followed suit. "Are you _trying_ to get me fired?"

"I'm just doing what's best for Team Rocket!" she snapped.

"You really are trying to get me fired!"

Troy's face clouded over with anger. "Just pack up your things and move to Mirror B's office. I don't want to here anymore of this." She whipped around and began to walk away.

"YOU'RE INSANE!" he screamed after her, but instantly realized his mistake.

She slowly turned her head and smiled at him coyly. Troy was invincible. No one could defy her without punishment, and Donovan had just done one of the worst he could do to himself. "Gi-Gi wouldn't like you calling me that," the woman purred in a syrupy voice. "He gets awfully mad very, very easily; Donovan. He wouldn't like to hear that you've been rude to me. I mean, you already know what he's like when he's mad…"

He didn't answer.

"Well then, that's settled. You might want to start moving your things, Donovan. Mirror B. is already ready and waiting with his belongings. He's always ready. You could stand to be more like him, you know?"

"Piss off," Donovan muttered under his breath.

"Well, bye-bye."

"I said; _piss off_."

She was toying with him. "Are you going to say goodbye?"

"I said; pi-"

"PISS OFF YOURSELF!" she screamed, and slammed the door behind her.

After getting over the initial shock of being in heaps of trouble, Donovan's mind fueled towards one thing: payback. What made Troy tick? Fashion. But that was something trivial; he needed to use something that would hurt all of Team Rocket. That would show them not to mess with him; all those capitalist big-shots.

Mew. They had just caught Mew. That was the answer. It was surely the most powerful Pokémon in all the regions; and they had captured it. Giovanni was surely had everything he wanted now, save the demise of the Anti-Trainers. But what if Mew, say…escaped by accident? That would be unfortunate.

Donovan checked his pocket for a large ring of keys and grinned. He had access to all parts of the Rocket HQ; including all the laboratories where Mew was most likely held. But he couldn't go now, not with an injured leg and only five minutes to move from his office. He would have to do it later.

When the time was right.

* * *

The group had traveled from Lavender Town and were now situated on a long, narrow boardwalk out in the middle of a fairly large lake. Fishermen stood in various places, trying to catch anything that floated in the water; including tires, empty wallets, and babies. 

"Hey Ellen, Fuchsia City already looks like it's a dumb place to go," Feolan exclaimed, pointing to somewhere. The other three traced his paw to see a huge, furry, navy-blue lump that was snoring peacefully.

Ellen gave him a deserved smack to the back of the head. "You dumbass; that's a Snorlax. And it's right in front of us!"

"Really?"

Indeed, the Snorlax was barely three feet away from them, but Feolan was stupid enough to believe that it was Fuchsia City, which was roughly six miles away and surrounded by obscuring trees.

"So you mean that ugly, fat lump isn't your hometown?" asked the Mightyena with doubt in his voice. Ellen nodded. "Wow…cause that Snorlax sort of reminded me of you…you know…fat, ugly…"

"You shouldn't be talkin', man!" the Anti-Trainer shouted, punching him on the arm. "You weigh, like, fifteen thousand pounds!"

"OH RLY? PROVE IT!"

"NO!"

"LIAR!"

"NO RLY!"

"YAH RLY!"

"NO RLY!"

"YAH RLY!"

"This is crazy," muttered Charles, looking down at Kyoshi and Phil as the other two were still bickering. "Wanna fly over the Snorlax and get some ice cream in Fuchsia? We'll come back for them later."

"Sounds like a plan to me…" Kyoshi murmured.

"Wait a second!" Phil walked over to Charles, widened his eyes, and stuck out his lower lip in a puppy-dog pout. "I wanna play with Ellen and Feolan!"

The Charizard shook his head. "Now, now; Phil…Ellen and Feolan are idiots, even though they may of done some risky things."

"But I wanna!"

"No! That's final."

The Mudkip's eyes began to tear, and Charles heaved a large sigh; a sort of parental sigh. "Kyoshi, talk some sense into this Mudkip!"

"Do what Charles tells you to do," she said dully.

"BUT I DON'T WANNA! I WANNA GO PLAY WITH ELLEN AND FEOLAN!"

Finally, Ellen and Feolan themselves walked over to the scene and exchanged haughty glances to see Charles and Kyoshi chastising Phil like two parents.

The Mightyena leaned over to Kyoshi and nudged her on the shoulder. "Boy, you and Charles would make a great sitcom couple. It'd be really cute."

"To bad we aren't compatible," the Persian returned sarcastically, moving away from the Mightyena.

"Yeah," Charles went on, "I'm disappointed, because Kyoshi is _one sexy babe_!"

Everyone grew silent.

The Charizard frowned and his eyes widened fearfully, blushing. He attempted to speak, but just started stuttering. "I- I don't really- you know- it's just a- a joke! Can- does anyone have a sense of humor?"

Kyoshi rolled her eyes. "First Giovanni's Persian, and now you? Why do only creepy males like me? Seriously, if I had a choice, I would have to choose the Persian."

"Ohhhh! Burn!" shouted Feolan in Charles' face. "That was a diss! Burn! MAJOR BURN! Quick, get some ice 'cause that was a _burn_!"

"It's was just a joke…" The Charizard just walked over to the far side of the boardwalk, sat down, and just sulked.

Phil watched this whole interaction with rage in his small, peanut-sized brain. Feolan had made Charles _sad_. Feolan was _mean_ to Charles. He was a _big meanie_. Charles should be _happy_. He shouldn't be _sad_. That made Phil _mad_.

"Hey!" the Mudkip barked, running in front of Feolan. The Mightyena regarded him with mild surprise, and Phil reached out and pointed at him. "You made Charles sad!"

"So?" Feolan snorted.

"That means you made _me_ mad!"

"So?"

Phil bared his teeth and began speaking in a deep, demonic voice. "_FOR YOUR INSOLENCE, YOU WILL FEEL A WORLD OF PAIN!_"

By now everyone had shrunk back from the crazed Mudkip in fright, and Phil suddenly morphed back to his normal, happy self. "Wow," he said cheerily, "that was weird. Sorry Feolan, I just got a little carried away."

"It's…eee…okay…" he squeaked, shivering in Ellen's arms.

The Charizard lumbered from his sulking place and walked over to the group, smiling. "Good job, Phil!" Charles said jovially, patting the Mudkip on the back. "See? Listen to Uncle Charles from now on, and-"

"_Uncle Charles_?" the Anti-Trainer asked, interrupting him. "What the hell?"

The Charizard shot her a look that said: 'keep quiet,' and continued to speak, leaning down so he was eye-level with Phil. "Listen to Uncle Charles from now on, and you'll never be bullied again. Now group," he looked up at everyone. "How are we gonna get past the Snorlax?"

"Well," Kyoshi explained, "we have two options. One, we use the Pokéflute to wake it up and battle it, or two, we fly over it."

"I vote fly!" Feolan exclaimed, raising his paw in the air. Everyone else seemed to agree with the latter; all except Charles, of course, who was thinking about his unpleasant sickness, but eventually the group coaxed him to fly.

As soon as the Snorlax was a mere giant lump in the distance, and the Charizard had already barfed three times, the group could now see Fuchsia City. It was smaller than Ellen had described it, and there was an absence of tall buildings unlike other cities they had been to.

"Are you sure that's Fuchsia?" asked Charles, beating his wings and surveying the land. "It looks…like the suburbs."

"I'm sure," Ellen snapped. "Fuchsia is like…the best city in the whole damn region!"

"Okay, I'll take your word for it…"

The group had passed over the boardwalk and was now flying over a grass plain littered with trainers. Among them were a fierce-looking bunch of bikers, and Feolan commanded Charles to fly lower so that the Mightyena could get a better look at the women, who were all wearing tight-fitting leather pants and barely an excuse for a shirt. The bikers wore all pink leather, bright pink Mohawks, and the most terrifying bikes you could imagine: tricycles.

It was horrible. Phil almost cried at the sight of them, and Ellen did to.

"We need to help these pathetic people!" the Anti-Trainer sniveled. "They're so wimpy it's not even funny! Come on, Charles, I need to do something about it!"

"Okay, okay, I'm going." The Charizard increased his speed and flew down towards the ground, opting for a perfect landing but just crashing nose-first into the ground and sending all his passengers rolling across the grass.

Ellen had landed with her face implanted in dirt. She sat up slowly and brushed it off her face, spitting out dirt and gagging at the same time. After she was finished, the Anti-Trainer jumped up and started stomping the ground with her foot, cussing at it. "GAH! YOU FLIPPING EARTH! I HATE YOU! I HATE DIRT, DAMN STUFF! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

"Umm…excuse me?"

"Stupid, stupid, dumbass, stupid, land!"

"Excuse me…miss?"

"THE GROUND SUCKS!"

"MISS!"

"What?" Ellen turned around to face a tall, dark, heavily-muscled man wearing bright pink leather and a magenta Mohawk. He would have been intimidating if not for the meek expression on his large face.

"Um," he began softly, twiddling his thumbs and avoiding eye-contact, "Hi. I'm Mean Joe Pink, leader of the Fuzzy Bunny Bike Gang. Er…we'd really appreciate it if you'd move your Charizard off…er…one of our bikers. He might get hurt, you know?"

The Anti-Trainer looked over Mean Joe Pink's shoulder to see Charles spread out on the ground, crushing some poor, twitching biker. "Oh yeah, sorry about that. Anyway, my name is Ellen, and I'm gonna help you get tough."

The biker shook her hand timidly. "Oh…thank you Ellen, that's very nice of you. We'd really like to be tough, but we're having some trouble. We'd be very thankful if you'd teach us."

"Alright, I will then. So. Show me the crew."

Mean Joe Pink called all the bikers around. He instructed them to sit in a well-organized circle and tell about themselves politely.

"Hi," said a woman happily, giving everyone a cheerful wave. She wore the traditional Fuzzy Bunny biker attire and had a big, bright smile. "I'm Sheila, but everyone calls me, 'The Baby Eater'. I enjoy going to lunch with my biker gang and sewing. In my free time, I help out at nursing homes."

Ellen smacked her forehead. This was going to take awhile…

A teenage boy was next. "Howdy everybody!" he shouted in a Western accent, spreading his arms out.

"Howdy Larry!" the Fuzzy Bunnies echoed.

"I'm Larry, and my hobbies include cooking, cleaning, and breeding Pokémon! Everyone calls me, 'The Flesh Ripper!'"

"I love the nicknames, but the people are so wimpy," Ellen whispered to Feolan.

"Yeah. Maybe you should teach 'em how to act like Team Rocket. That'll rough 'em up!"

"Dude, we want tough, not homicidal."

"Aw man…"

Another biker had already begun their description, being called 'The Gory Strangler,' and enjoyed gardening. As soon as his was over, it was Ellen's turn.

"Alright Ellen," Mean Joe Pink explained, "now it's your turn. Feel free to voice as much as you want. We're an open and loving biker gang."

The Anti-Trainer gave him a thumbs-up and began her description. "Sup everybody?"

"Nothing much!" they yelled.

"Cool. I'm Ellen; just an Anti-Trainer from Fuchsia making her way around Kanto, collecting badges and crap. I like video games, candy, soda, Nintendo Power, and busting Team Rocket's ass. Oh yeah, friends call me Fiery Sapphire. Or Ellen. And I'm here to teach you how to be tough."

"Oh no," gasped Shelia. "We can't be tough! That's cruel and unjust!"

"Your mom is unjust," Ellen returned coolly.

Shelia sniveled a bit and suddenly burst into tears. The Fuzzy Bunnies exchanged glances. Finally, Mean Joe Pink said to Shelia, "Baby Eater; Ellen is going to teach us how to be tough."

"Yeah," the Anti-Trainer said proudly, "You can't take that lip from me! What are ya gonna do?"

"I'm going to find my mommy," she whispered.

"NO! You're gonna cuss me up! _That's_ what you're gonna do."

"I can't…I just can't…I like love, not hate…"

"Aright." Now Ellen stood up and looked at everyone. "Is anyone gonna cuss me up? Come on, you babies! Do it!"

"YOU SUCK SHIT, ELLEN!" Feolan screamed.

"Besides you!"

"YOU'RE A MEANIE PANTS!" yelled Larry. "YEE HAW!"

"Try again, Texas crap!"

"I'm going to rip the flesh off of your face, break you in half, and use your blood for eyeglass cleaner!" Phil said in the same demonic voice.

Ellen and her Pokémon shrunk back from the Mudkip, and he pointed at Ellen.

"A child like you would never understand what I hope to achieve," he snarled at her, grinning. Then, suddenly, he brightened again. "And that's how you act tough!"

"What'd he say?" asked Larry.

"Nothing you'd wanna hear," the Anti-Trainer muttered.

"Amen," Shelia said, then suddenly stood up and pointed at something behind Ellen. "Hey…what's that?"

Everyone got up to look. Lumbering towards them was a giant Snorlax, roaring angrily and destroying anything it could crush. It would occasionally pick up something and eat it. Trainers ran for their lives, screaming as the giant lump began to destroy the boardwalk.

Feolan tugged on his whiskers nervously. "Holy crap! We're gonna get eaten and/or squished!"

"Nice use of a slash mark," Kyoshi said.

Mean Joe Pink suddenly stepped up. "DON'T WORRY," he said in a heroic voice, "I'LL TAKE CARE OF IT!"

He began to run forward. Everything was in slow-motion, and Shelia screamed loudly, waving her arms. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Mean Joe Pink cried, jumping forward to grab hold of the Snorlax. He lifted it up, and everyone gasped at his unknown strength. Then, he threw it into the ocean were it landed with a huge splash.

"We're saved!" Larry cheered. "Mean Joe is tough now! We can be tough, too!"

And suddenly something really random happened that only could happen in Fiery Sapphire. The Fuzzy Bunny members started growing rapidly, getting huge muscles. Their clothing turned into black leather with numerous chains and piercings. The pink Mohawk became bright green and jet black. Their tricycles became huge Harleys with flames down the back.

They had transformed.

Mean Joe Pink came back and beat his chest. "WE ARE NO LONGER THE FUZZY BUNNIES!" he boomed, "WE ARE NOW _HELL'S_ _BIKERS_! I AM NO LONGER MEAN JOE PINK! I AM NOW MEAN JOE GREEN!"

"AND I AM THE BABY EATER!" Shelia crowed.

"I AM THE FLESH RIPPER!" Larry roared.

The new and improved 'Mean Joe Green' pointed at Ellen and then grabbed her throat, lifting her up to eye level. Through the 'tough' process, he had grown to, like, seven feet. "ELLEN," he bellowed, "EVEN THOUGH IT'S AGAINST TOUGH RULES, WE'D ALL LIKE TO THANK YOU!"

"_THANK YOU!_" everyone yelled.

"CAN WE DO ANYTHING TO REPAY YOU?"

The Anti-Trainer started gagging and turning red. "Can't…breathe…loss of…oxygen! Esophagus…being…crushed!"

He left her fall. "OKAY THEN, SORRY ABOUT THAT. ANYWAY, THANKS AGAIN."

The Hell's Bikers all mounted their Harleys and rode away into the distance, waving. As their special way of saying goodbye and thank you, they all yelled back:

"YOU SUCK SHIT, ELLEN!"

"Holy crap," the girl said dully.

Phil became maniacal again and began to cackle. "I shall step aside this time! I hope we meet again…!"

Kyoshi shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, now that that's over and done with, let's get over to Fuchsia City."

"Back home we go!"

"I still think it's gonna be pathetic," Feolan muttered, and got a deserved whack upside the head.

Suddenly Phil ran up to Charles. "Uncle Charles," he whined, "I need to go potty real bad!"

Everyone groaned loudly as the Mudkip slowly smiled.

"Never mind…"

* * *

Alright, chapter finished. Well, let's see…what can I talk about…? 

Well, remember Ellen's little 'I hate ground/dirt rant?' Now there's a bit of humorous, Flameboo-irony for you; if you're smart enough to figure out why.

Hey, I have SOME SPECIAL FOR Y'ALL!

Phil the Mudkip was acting quite random through the chapter, yelling out strange phrases. If anyone can tell me who he's quoting, (in a review,) the person can have a camo in the next chapter! Yea! If I tell you that you guessed correctly, send me a PM with your character's name, looks, and personality. Even allegiance; (example: trainer, Rocket, breeder, biker, cheese-maker…the choice is yours.)

AND NO CHEATING!

Phil's phrases-

1.) _FOR YOUR INSOLENCE, YOU WILL FEEL A WORLD OF PAIN!_"

2.) A child like you would never understand what I hope to achieve.

3.) I shall step aside this time! I hope we meet again…!

Alright, so I think it's a pretty pathetic, easy challenge, but who's kidding?

Hint- Video Game character. Zat ees all I'm saying.

NOW REVIEW!


	29. The Utterly Musical Chapter: Part One

Well, alright, here we go. I broke this up into a two-chapter special because I'm a-goin' on vacation next week, so I won't be here to write a chapter, but never fear- (terminator voice) I'LL BE BACK!

So…don't expect the next chapter for a week…oh…the tension is just killing you I bet.

Well, enjoy the musical.

P.S- koolkat13 won the contest in the last chapter, so she gets a camo! Horray for her!

* * *

Fiery Sapphire 29

The Utterly Musical Chapter

Part One

As our no-so-heroic group was lumbering towards Ellen's home town; Fuchsia City; Kyoshi pricked her keen ears up and looked around vigilantly. Through the thick, moss-covered trees, there was a faint tune in the air, indescribable, but nevertheless totally audible.

"Hey, does anyone else here something?" the Persian asked, casting a side-ways glance at her comrades.

They all stopped and listened for a moment, but only Ellen seemed to hear it because she pumped her fist in the air triumphantly. "That…is the sound of VICTORY! We're almost to The City of Pink!"

Feolan snorted with laughter.

"Actually guys," Charles said slowly, "I hate to break it to you, but Phil just ate a can of beans, so…"

The group immediately reeled back and jumped for covering in a cluster of nearby bushes, while Phil and Charles collapsed in a heap on the ground, laughing hysterically. Feolan emerged from the bushes first, spitting out a cluster of leaves.

"What's so funny?" he asked, jumping out of the greenery.

The other two followed suit, while the Charizard wiped a large tear from his eye. "It's a joke," he choked out, Phil adding to the effect by giggling. "Why the hell do you think we'd have a can of beans lying around? The last thing I had to eat was your Prickly Pear Flan, Ellen. And besides," he added smugly, crossing her arms, "I know where the music is _really_ coming from."

"Ya do?" the Mudkip asked, now totally serious.

"Sure. Fuchsia City. You know why? Because I have the complete manuscript of Fiery Sapphire!" Speak of the devil; there was a small 'poof' noise and a thick collection of paper appeared in his claw. Ellen raised an eyebrow at him.

"What the hell are you talking about…?" she asked slowly.

He grinned at her and directed his attention to the paper, flipping through it slowly. Occasionally he would burst out laughing, gasp, or making disgusted noises. He flicked to the slight end of the papers and began to read it, chuckling. Then, his face darkened a bit. He squinted his eyes, gasped, and then roared in anger. Everyone glanced at each other wearily, awaiting the Charizard's next movement. Finally, he turned and gave a long, slow look of sympathy at Ellen.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered. "Boy, are you in for it."

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?" she screamed, tackling him. Ellen and Charles erupted into a small fight, the girl trying to grab the wad of papers from his claw.

Feolan clutched his ears and pulled on them from the sidelines, jumping up and down. "I WANNA READ IT, TOO! LEMME SEE IT, LEMME SEE IT!"

A small smile appeared on Kyoshi's face as her eyes glowed a dark, luminescent purple. There was a bright flash executed from her eyes, and everyone stopped fighting and sat on the ground. There wasn't a paper in sight.

They forget everything that just happened.

"What just happened?" Charles asked.

"Where's that music coming from?" asked Ellen.

"Sweet cheese nuggets!" Phil exclaimed.

Feolan jumped up and glared at Kyoshi, sneering. "It's to bad Physic moves don't work on me, cause I'm a Dark ty-"

_CHING!_

"AHH! MY EYES, MY EYES! OH SHIT, SHIT, SHIT! I CAN'T REMEMBER ANYTHING!"

Ellen walked up to the two and gazed at the spazzing, twitching Mightyena. "Wow. What's up with Feolan?"

"Nothing," the Persian replied coolly, smiling. "We should be getting to Fuchsia City, though. Ready to leave?"

"I LIKE CHEESEYFISHNUGGETS!" Phil screamed, and they were off.

* * *

When the five-some entered Fuchsia City, the Pokémon all gasped loudly in horror. Phil swooned and fainted. 

Fuchsia City didn't even have the slightest bit of city in it, nor fuchsia. It was large and grassy, large mansions popping up every so often on rolling hills. To the far north was a sprawling, fenced-in jungle, The Safari Zone, and just in front of it a small zoo. Scattered about were also fences and walls of some sorts and to the left was a mansion boasting the title, GYM. Next to the Gym and Pokécenter were two charming little brick houses quite different from the mansions.

"You lived _here_?" Feolan asked finally, awe-struck. Several people were trotting around, drinking tea and commenting how nice the weather was; even though it looked rain was going to pour down in any second. "_Here_? In this…Richland?"

"Don't look at me!" wailed Ellen, covering her face in her hands, "don't look at my SHAME!"

"Get a grip," Charles said, "there's got to be an explanation for Ellen telling us it was some ghetto."

The Anti-Trainer gave a fake sniff that just made her look like an idiot. "Uh…it _was_ a ghetto…or at least I liked to pretend it was…" she then said quickly, "But the Safari Zone was like a ghetto, 'cause all the Pokémon had these little gangs and were all kicking each other's asses! The Venomoth were all like: 'You suck, Parasect!' and all the Parasect were like: 'You suck, Pinsir,' so it was cool like that."

"Just great," Charles said, scanning the 'city' with his keen eyes. "So where'd you live? That place?" He pointed to an ugly-looking gray mansion. "Or there? Or there? Or there?"

He pointed to another, and another, and another, until Ellen had to finally stop him by yelling out, "NO, I didn't live it any of those! I lived _there_! _Happy_?"

She flung her middle finger at one of the small houses nestled next to the gym. It was two floors, but still small. Ivy clung to the sides and a small fountain bubbled in the front.

"How…_quaint_," Kyoshi murmured, scratching behind her ear. "It's a lot different than some of the mansions."

"Yeah…because we're not rich. So what are we waiting for? Let's get to the gym! Then we can all see my house, and the Safari Zone, an-"

Ellen was suddenly interrupted by a loud, sing-song voice screaming, "VISITORS! VISITORS, EVERYBODY!"

A multitude of townspeople jumped up from bushes, behind trees, and even under rocks. A few Pidgeys fluttered down from the branches, Rattata scurried from the undergrowth, and Magicarp swam to the edge of a small pond to get a glimpse of the Anti-Trainer. It looked as if a whole frickin' party had decided to show up.

"Uh…" Ellen said.

Just then, something swooped in also. It turned out to be a girl of about Ellen's age with long brown hair, a black tee-shirt, jeans, and a necklace with a Pokéball on it. She had a strange skin coloring; navy-ish, and the slight, slight facial features of a Salamence.

Oh yeah; did I mention she had a Salamence's wings and tail?

"WELCOME, VISITOR," boomed everyone simultaneously.

"WHAT'S HAPPENIN'?" Salamence Girl asked. All eyes immediately turned to glare and her, and she shot a fiery glare back to the group. "What's the big idea?" she spat, "I'm just tryin' to be friendly! Can't a Pokémorph get a little respect around here?"

"Humph," sniffed a young, petite woman. She looked about thirty with short, chopped, blond hair and blue eyes, brightened heavily by mascara. She was wearing a peach-colored dress-suit. What was most surprising was how perfect-looking she was- there wasn't a blemish or ill-placed mole anywhere. "Go. Back. To the gym, Dragona. You're not welcome. Here."

"But…can't I just stay for the song, Miss. Viola?" she pleaded.

"What song?" Feolan burst out.

"GREAT." stormed the woman, in a level voice. "Now they know. About the surprise. And that's _Mayor _Viola to you. Missy."

"WHAT SURPRISE?" Ellen wailed.

Kyoshi held a glare at Dragona. "This is slightly suspicious…Pokémorphs weren't created until in the future by Team Rocket. Then how did Dragona get here when it's still vaguely in the FireRed or Blue Version of the Pokémon games? I mean seriously, this defies all kinds of lo- OURF!"

"Put a sock in it," Phil said, stuffing a dirty, moldy sock in Kyoshi's mouth. A comedy drum sounded.

Mayor Viola sighed and shimmied over to the Anti-Trainer. The woman briskly shook her hand. Viola's grip was so crushing that Ellen's finger bones almost snapped. "Pleasure to meet you. I'm Mayor Viola Fini. You must be Ellen. Welcome to Fuchsia City. Don't mind Dragona. She's just special. Originally we were going to sing the Fuchsia City anthem to you. We do that for all visitors. Do you want to hear it?"

"Well, uh-"

She nodded. "Good," she said quickly, waving her hands so that a small group formed in front of her. "Let's sing. Everybody. One. Two. Three!"

"_Good morning Fuchsia! Every day's like a Blue-sha! Every night is a starry blaze! Every sound's like a cry of praise! Good morning Fuchsia, and some day when I once knew-sha, the world's gonna bow down and say, Fuchsia's gone to slay_!"

Ellen gasped audibly. "What the hell was _that_? That's not an anthem! That's…weird!"

And yet they still continued. "_Ah, Ah, Ah! Look at our flair! What town can compare with ours today? Ah, Ah, Ah… We've got our town name to mispronounce! We're ready to flounce!_ _We command our fleet- Our town's really sweet. They seem to say: 'Viola, it's up to you!' So, ah, ah… Don't hold us back, cause today all our dreams will come true!_"

"I HATE IT!" the Anti-Trainer finally admitted, and the entire cast grew silent. The Mayor gazed at her dully and placed a fist at her miniature waist.

"Sorry," Viola replied stiffly, "Can't change it. City rules. The Mayor dominates."

"The old mayor was better!" she protested furiously, stomping her foot, "The Warren didn't even have to be called Mayor! He was nice!" the Anti-Trainer _did _have a point, but Viola gazed at her as if she was teaching a small child. She finally broke into a large frown.

"But unfortunately the Warren suffered a speech implement. Very severe. It caused blockage of the esophagus. Resulted in suffocation. He was immediately taken to the hospital. They couldn't save him, sadly." The woman sighed almost dreamily. "He died quietly. I bet you're glad for that."

"No, I'm not!" she sputtered, opened her mouth to say something, but was quietly shushed by Viola.

"It was nature's way. There was nothing we could do. Get over it. Now, Dragona. Take Ellen to the Gym. She probably wants to badge. Right?"

"Uhh..-"

"Yes? Good. Great. Superb. Dragona?"

The girl zipped up to her. "Uh-huh?"

"Take Ellen to the Gym," she repeated, pushing the two away. "Ellen. I hoped you like our welcome. Remember it. Live by it. It's special. Probably your last. Cherish it. Goodbye."

"Fatass weirdo," Feolan muttered under his breath, and scratched his head furiously.

* * *

"Don't mind her," Dragona said after a while, flapping her large wings, "she's usually weird like that. You'll get used to her by the time you leave." 

Charles rolled his eyes. "Well that's a small comfort…"

"Its okay, Charizard," the Pokémorph said, "I'll just kidding. Oh yeah, and before any of you guys start asking questions, I CAN talk to Pokémon, too."

"Congrads," Ellen muttered.

Dragona glared at her. "You got a problem with that?"

"If you mean _that_ as your face, then yeah."

Dragona released a guttural, Salamence growl.

Ellen fired back a Gyarardos roar.

The two teens agued in Pokéish for a while before both giving up and declaring friendship again just in time. The Gym rose up before them, dark and impeding.

"This place gives me the heebie-jeebies!" Phil declared in a horribly high-pitched voice, looking up at the roof, and blinked suddenly, shaking his head. Something had moved up there. It was a jerky, quick movement, but _something_ was up there. "Uh…Ellen, I think something's on the roof…"

"Not now, Phil," the Anti-Trainer muttered busily, opening the Gym doors. She turned to Dragona, who was already waving goodbye. "See ya later! And thanks!"

"No problemo," she said, and flew lazily away.

Charles sighed dreamily. "You'll always have a place in my heart, Salamence Girl."

"Get a life," Ellen said.

The inside of the gym had a very simple design, Japanese, almost, and just screamed ninja. In the middle of the gym was a host of black-clad, ninjas-in-training, doing a set of complicated moves and yelling weird Japanese battle cries. The Anti-Trainer and co. slowly crept up on the group, and Ellen tapped the closest person on the shoulder; a spiky, black-haired man dressed in ninja attire.

He whipped around to face her, surprised, but then smiled calmly and bowed to her. "_HI-YAH_! Welcome, young grasshopper," he drawled cryptically in a Korean accent. "You are a trainer, are you not?"

"Anti-Trainer, actually," she explained.

"Oi!" He frowned and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Yet you still want the badge…?"

"Yeah. Uh-huh. Sure. Just get me out of here."

Koga still looked at her in awe, and stuttered, "bu- but we always have welcoming songs!"

"What is it with this frickin' town?" Ellen yelled. "I'VE ONLY BEEN GONE FOR, LIKE, TWO MONTHS!"

"Mayor Viola forced everyone to sing welcoming songs once she became Mayor," Koga confessed in a whisper. "We've been like this ever since."

Suddenly, a very green ninja popped up from behind Koga; the one and only Abby!

"Hey Ellen!" she said cheerily. "What's up?"

"Not a thang, Abby, not a thang," she sighed. "Yeah…besides an evil, singing Mayor."

"What's new?" Abby asked, shrugging. "Fuchsia City sucks now that Viola is here."

"Yeah!" The Anti-Trainer struck a triumphant pose. "NO ONE MAKES MY HOMEOTOWN SUCK UNLESS _I_ SAY SO! I'M GONNA SAVE FUCHSIA!"

"Halleluiah!" Abby sang, throwing her hands in the air. "This deserves a _song_!"

Funky Chinese music started to play, and all the ninjas suddenly shimmied into a chorus line and began to sing, "_Everybody was kung-fu fighting! Those cats were fast as lightning! In fact it was a little bit frightening, but they fought with expert timing!_"

"Hey, that doesn't even rhyme!" Feolan said angrily, and then began to sing in a horrible voice, "_They were funky China men from funky Chinatown! They were chopping them up and they were chopping them down! It's an ancient Chinese art and everybody knew their part, from a feint into a slip, and kicking from the hip_!"

Then the ninjas repeated the chorus. "_Everybody was kung-fu fighting! Those cats were fast as lightning! In fact it was a little bit frightening, but they fought with expert timing!_"

Even Charles got his 'thang' going. "_There was funky Billy Chin and little Sammy Chung, he said 'here comes the big boss, let's get it on!' We took a bow and made a stand, started swinging with the hand, the sudden motion made me skip now we're into a brand new trip_!"

"_Everybody was kung-fu fighting! Those cats were fast as lightning! In fact it was a little bit frightening, but they fought with expert tim_-"

"STOP! EVERYONE, STOP SINGING!" Koga roared spreading his arms out as the entire cast quieted down and looked at their master quizzically. He gestured to Ellen. "Ellen, you just can't go up to the Mayor in her office and challenge her to a Pokémon battle!"

"And yet in the Celadon Game Corner you can challenge a sadistic, ingenious, mafia leader who could kill your character at any given time…" Charles mused cryptically, stroking his chin.

"Why…does…everyone…keep…making…Pokémon…game…references?" Ellen growled. "I'm just gonna forget that ever happened. But anyway, Charles is right," she said after translating the Charizard's true words. "And anyways, I'm not battling!"

"Then…what are ya doing?" a random ninja asked.

"I'm kicking ass!" the Anti-Trainer declared dementedly, acting like the most idiotic character of all time: Ash Ketchum. "But right after this commercial break!"

"Really?" Koga asked in fake surprise.

"No," Kyoshi replied dully. "Flameboo is going to make us wait a whole chapter before she has the next part up. So make yourselves comfy, everyone. This might take a while."

_WILL ELLEN AND CO. FIND THE TRUTH ABOUT MAYOR VIOLA? WILL ABBY EVER BECOME A TRUE NINJA? WILL DRAGONA CONTINUE HER CAMO OVER INTO THE NEXT CHAPTER? AND WHAT IS WITH ME ASKING ALL THESE STUPID QUESTIONS?_

_FIND OUT NEXT TIME ON…FIERY SAPPHIRE!_

* * *

_IT'S TIME FOR EVERYONE'S FAVORITE GAME!_

_WHO'S THAT RAPÁMON?_

(Shadow of some random Rap artist with tons of bling-bling.)

* * *

The scene switches to a blank background, and who of all people but Will comes out, holding a small bottle of deodorant. 

"Do your armpits stink like hell infested by Koffing?" he asked a bit too enthusiastically, as a random smelly guy came out.

The random guy was incredibly fat, ugly, and smelly and began to stink up the whole commercial set with waifs of green air. "They _sure_ do," he said in a gravely voice. "My wife won't even come home I stink so bad."

Will's face turned to surprise and he looked at the camera. "That's TOO BAD!"

"Yup," Stink Man said, as a camera man passed out on the ground. "I wish I could cure it."

"Then you need _this_!" The scientist held out the small can of deodorant. "New! Silph Co. Super Deodorant! It really works! Here; try some!" Will handed the man the deodorant, and suddenly Stink Man transformed into this insanely handsome young guy without even using the deodorant.

"Wow!" the totally different guy said, grinning at the camera. "New Silph Co. Super Deodorant is GREAT! I need to buy some for a whole family!"

Will gave the camera an exaggerated thumbs-up. "Try New Silph Co. Super Deodorant! Now in flavors such as Mint, Tutty Fruity, Lemon, Caviar, and Pudding! Try some today!" The commercial faded out.

_TRY NEW SILPH CO. SUPER DEODORANT!_

(_Warning: deodorant may not work to the effects of this commercial, or work at all. Minor side-effects may include: rash, vomiting, headache, hair-loss, cold, flu, typhoid fever, blood-loss, bone-thinning, loss of hearing, blindness, hairy armpits, smelly armpits, toenail loss, nail loss, severed limbs, congested nose, rotting of teeth, hemorrhaging, fainting, dizziness, and, quite rarely, death._)

* * *

_WHO'S THAT RAPÁMON?_

(Shadow revealed to be Fifty Cent)

_IT'S FIFTY CENT!_

"I'm gon' beat yo' mom, carjack yo' sista', and get yo' lil' bro drunk, biatch!"

* * *

While all the singing and dancing was going on with Ellen and Co. in Fuchsia City, Giovanni and Troy were 'first basing it' on a couch. 

Suddenly, the corrupted Boss of Team Rocket sat up abruptly, rigid. He smoothed his hair back and a complete look of confusion spread on his face.

"Something is wrong," he said simply. He glanced around his bedroom, looking for an error. The lights were still low, the money was still in the desk, the rugs were still hand-made and expensive, his clothing was expensive, his furniture was- Oh, for crying out loud, everything in the flipping room was worth, like, ten million bucks, okay?

Give the author a break for once, sheesh!

Sorry.

"What's the matter, honey?" Troy asked, sitting up also. Just as quickly, she obtained the same feeling as her husband- something was _wrong_. "You're right!"

"Yes, I know."

"What is it?"

"I have no clue."

Now Troy was frantic, and she suddenly pulled Giovanni around to face her, clutched her stomach and screamed, OH MY GOD! I'M PREGNANT AGAIN!"

He raised an eyebrow at her snidely, and she calmed down.

"But…" she whispered, "If it's not that, then what is it?"

The Boss sighed. "Two things. First of all, I just started to realize: teenagers today are horrible. They smoke cheap cigarettes instead of good ones, they do drugs, they only start drinking at fourteen, they turn into Anti-Trainers…kids today are corrupt."

"You're absolutely right!" Troy crowed. "Teens have no sense of fashion nowadays. They walk around in the absolutely most _hideous_ things. They wear horrible things like…jeans, and…shrugs, and, and…BIKINIS!"

"What's wrong with bikinis?" Giovanni asked.

Now it was his wife's turn to raise her eyebrow.

He brushed the motion aside. "Fine, fine," he grumbled, changing the subject, "I agree. But the second thing is the most important."

"Hmmm?"

"I have the urge to…er…_sing_."

Troy looked shocked. "So do I! So what should we sing?"

"I don't know," Giovanni said, dumbfounded for the first time in many months. "But I understand one thing: The whole world's gone low-brow. Things ain't what they used to be."

"They sure ain't, Gi-Gi," she sighed heavily, "they sure ain't. It's all gone."

Suddenly, somber piano music began to play, and could only be recognized by the song Class from the movie _Chicago_. The lights dimmed, and Giovanni and Troy sat opposite from each other in thoughtful positions.

Giovanni began singing in a deep, well-practiced voice. "_Whatever happened to fair dealing…? And pure ethics…And nice manners? Why is it everyone now is a pain in the ass? Whatever happened to class?"_

"_Class_," Troy sighed in a fluttery, high singing voice. She sunk her head dramatically. "_Whatever happened to, "Please, may I?" And "Yes, thank you?" And "How charming?" Now, every son of a bitch is a snake in the grass! Whatever happened to class?_"

Now the duo jumped up and began to bellow it over-dramatic drama, throwing their heads back, Troy breaking into fake tears, Giovanni beating his fist on a table every so often in mock anger. The music volume increased. "_CLASS!_"

"_Ah, there ain't no gentlemen to open up the doors_," the woman screamed.

The man threw his arms in the air. "_There ain't no ladies now, there's only pigs and…WHORES!_"

Troy glared at him, but nevertheless, they continued singing a duet. "_And even kids'll knock ya down so they can pass…! Nobody's got no CLASS_!"

The music returned to its normal level, a simple piano tune.

"_Whatever happened to old values? And fine morals? And good breeding_?" Giovanni glanced around his shoulder at the door to make sure none of his 'little female Grunt friends' were going to make an entrance anytime soon.

"_Now, no one even says "oops" when they're passing their gas! Whatever happened to class…?_"

"_Class…_"

Troy collapsed onto the couch and pointed at her husband. "_Ah, there ain't no gentlemen that's fit for any use!_"

"_And any girl'd touch your privates for a deuce_," he growled, jerking his thumb at Troy.

"_And even kids'll kick your shins and give you sass_!"

"_And even teens'll punch your face and give you sass_…"

"_NOBODY'S GOT NO CLASS_!" they sang, and with two sighs, shook their heads at each other.

Giovanni opened up a newspaper; _The Daily Ooze_; and began to read it. "_All you read about today is rape…and theft!_" he half-mumbled, half-sang, flipping through the pages.

"_Jesus Christ_," the woman cried, "_ain't there no decency left?_"

"_Nobody's got no class!_"

"_Everybody you watch-_" the Boss sang, but was interrupted.

Troy grinned. "'_S got his brains in his crotch!_"

Giovanni glared at her menacingly. "_Holy shit_," he said slowly.

"_Holy shit_," she echoed.

"_What a shame!_"

"_What a shame!_"

"_What became of class…_?" The music finally died down and the pair was left sitting, breathing heavily from all the singing and dancing.

"That was…refreshing!" Troy panted, giggling. "So refreshing, I deserve to go shopping."

"Yes," he laughed uproariously, "so refreshing, I think we deserve a commercial break."

She blinked at him. "We have commercial breaks?"

"Of course- but just this time, though. We can't always have them."

"Oh, well…good enough. Bye everybody!"

* * *

_TRY TEAM ROCKET'S NEW PRODUCT! REALLY! IT'S GREAT! NOPE, NO DRUGS AND/OR POISON HERE! IT'S TOTALLY SAFE!_

_DRINK THIS STUFF OR WE'LL SHOOT YOU!_

The two Grunts Madeline and Oleg appeared in their normal Grunt attire. Cheesy commercial music was playing, and Oleg glanced nervously at his lines.

Madeline stepped up and began in a totally deadpan voice, "Do you like water?"

"I sure do," returned her friend in an equally tedious voice.

"Do you enjoy drinking water?"

"I sure do."

"Is all your water gone in the nearest stream, river, lake, estuary, mouth, brook, spring, ocean, sea, bog, swamp, pond, puddle, tributary, creek, faucet, marsh, bayou, rapids, watercourse, fountain-," she took a huge breath, "_GASP_, gutter, sewer, dew, reservoir, pool, basin, water-type Pokémon, bottle, toilet, clouds, mouth, shower, sink, refrigerator, portable potty, septic tank, water-tower, run-off, dog-bowl, and/or glacier?"

"That's a _big_ problem," Oleg said, waggling his finger at Madeline. A bottle of water suddenly came down from the ceiling, attached to a piece of rope. Oleg pointed at it and feigned surprise. "Look, Generic Female Grunt."

Madeline yawned. "What is it, Generic Male Grunt?"

"There's water right behind you."

"Really?" Speak of the cheesy devil, Madeline turned around and pulled the bottle of water off the string, which slowly made its journey off-screen again. The Grunt took a long drink of water and then gave the screen a dead beat thumbs-up.

The two Grunts looked at each other. "H2O is 'Oh too _H_'."

There was a confusing pause as the two registered their mistake.

"I mean…good," Oleg said slowly, looking around, and the commercial faded.

_YES, TRY NEW TEAM ROCKET WATER! NOW AVAILABLE FOR ONLY $19.99 IN PARTISIPATING LOCATIONS! FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!_

_REMEMBER, DRINK THIS STUFF, OR WE'LL MURDER YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY!_

(This illegal and possibly offending commercial is brought to you by _Tony's Restauranto_, _A Man who's Name is NOT Giovanni,_ and _Insura-monkeys_:Do _you_ have the monkey inside?)

* * *

"I can't believe how much I paid for that God-awful commercial," Giovanni snarled after it was over, his positive attitude totally dissipated. He reached for the phone. "That's it. I'm calling Rocket Resources and firing the lot." 

Troy appeared again and came into the room wearing Burberry and Prada, among other fashionable items and brands.

"_Dah-ling_," Troy addressed Giovanni dramatically, walking in front of him and interrupting his argument on the cell phone. She whipped off her huge sunglasses and glanced at him haughtily. "That commercial gave me just enough time to go shopping."

The Boss didn't look like he gave a damn and rolled his eyes. "Just _wonderful_. Another thousand or so dollars out of my bank account," he said under his breath. The people on the other line said something. Giovanni returned it with a nasty comment.

"Do you think this looks good on me?" Troy asked him, totally oblivious of his anger. She tried to pull down her low-cut shirt even more and her tight skirt was slowly ripping from pressure.

He paid her no attention and moved away a bit. "_Che cazzo stai dicendo_?" he snarled at them in Italian, which was a sure sign that he was furious.

His wife smiled and prodded her stomach. "I've think I've lost a lot of weight."

"For God's sake…WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE _DOING_? _Vaffanculo_!"

"See, I can buy so many more clothes now. It's really great for my ego, not to mention health. But if you noticed, I've been on a new diet for quite some time now. I don't eat anything, of course, and then when I feel like I'm about to faint I eat a small cube of cheese…and then throw it back up. So, it really works out…"

Giovanni stood up and screamed into the phone, "_ANDATE TUTTI A 'FANCULO!_"And slammed the phone down. Troy froze and raised her eyebrows, and her husband put on a relaxed smile. "Everything's better now. So…would you like to go out to dinner?"

Troy clapped her hands like a little girl. "That'd be great! I just love eating a cube of cheese every now and then! Let's go!"

As two went away, they didn't realize that Donovan had appeared in the doorway, confused from all the noise and still thoroughly pissed off at Troy.

"Uhh," he began unsurely, "did I here music?"

No one answered him.

"Excuse me?" he asked again, louder. He hobbled a few steps with the aid of a crutch. "I distinctly heard some music."

Donovan stopped speaking and sighed. It was no use. No one ever listened to him. The whole world didn't even give a care. It was like he was made of that clear stuff you use on food. Cellophane. Yeah, that's it.

The man looked very thoughtful as he leaned back against a wall and stroked his chin. "_If someone stood up in a crowd, and raised his voice up way out loud, and waved his arm and shook his leg…you'd notice him. If someone in the movie show, yelled 'FIRE IN THE SECOND ROW! THIS WHOLE PLACE IS A POWDER KEG!'_"

"_You'd notice him…_"

"_And even without clucking like a hen…everyone gets noticed now and then. Unless, of course, that personage should be- invisible, inconsequential- ME…_!"

The lights became very low and Donovan, in his full black suit, looked almost invisible except for a pair of white gloves which he donned, because, you know, it's cool to do that in a musical.

Donovan actually sounded remarkably like Amos from Chicago, which was a nice added effect. "_Cellophane…Mister Cellophane! Shoulda been my name…Mister Cellophane. 'Cause you can look right through me, walk right by me…and never know I'm there!_"

Giovanni suddenly reappeared again and flipped a light switch on to see Donovan in the middle of doing a series of 'Jazz Hands' moves. The music screeched to a halt.

"You're still in here?" he growled at him, glaring. Obviously the Boss was still mad at him.

"Yeah, I'm still in here!" he replied defiantly, flipping the lights off. The music started.

"_Cellophane, Mister Cellophane! Shoulda been my name- Mister Cellophane  
'Cause you can look right through me…walk right by me…And never know I'm there!"_

"Who's singing?" asked Troy from the background.

Donovan looked thoroughly exasperated as he sang his final line. "_Never…even…KNOW!…I'm there…"_ The man looked up for any appreciation, but no one was paying attention anymore. So he stalked out of the room, going to sulk.

"No one notices me," he muttered to himself. "Story of my life. One day I went to school, came back home, and my parents already moved."

No one really cared about Donovan, though, the poor guy, so he slunk off. Mirror B. suddenly appeared, waved at Troy and Giovanni, and bounced into the room.

He looked around. "This place is funky fresh, yo!"

Because the room lived up to Mirror B.'s 'funky fresh' ethnics, he decided it was a good time for a song. A large disco ball appeared from the ceiling. Disco music began to play.

And Mirror B. threw off his shirt and started dancing a dance I'd like to call, 'Dirty Disco Dancing.'

To put it bluntly, Mirror B. sounded like a drowning Mareep simultaneously being eaten by an Arbok who was being crushed by a Golem. And the song was horrible, too. "_Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk, I'm a woman's man: no time to talk! Music loud and women warm, I've been kicked around since I was born. And now it's all right- its ok. And you may look the other way! We can try to understand the New York times effect on man!_"

"Where's my gun when I need it?" Giovanni muttered to himself.

"_Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother, you're stayin alive, stayin alive! Feel the city breakin and everybody shakin, and were stayin alive, stayin alive! Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin alive, stayin alive! Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin ali-!_"

"STOP!" the Boss screamed, slamming a switch on the wall, and the entire room transformed back into his normal bedroom abruptly. He began file to everyone out of the room, even resulting to pushing with Troy. "Look! You- all you! Leave! Yes, even you, Troy. What? Yes Troy, I'm being alone for now. What? No, of course I'm not going to go shopping without you. Why would I even _go_ shopping? Oh well. Now get out."

He slammed the doors behind them and double bolted them, breathing a large sigh of relief.

"I…need to end this chapter, lest another song comes up," he declared to himself, a bit insane at the time. "Now…now…what do I do? What do I do to end this chapter? Er…" he stopped suddenly, grabbed the nearest bottle of alcohol, drained it, and smashed the bottle on the floor.

Nothing happened.

"DAMN!" Giovanni screamed, digging his shoe into the broken glass. He sank to his knees. "It worked last time! Now what do I do?"

"Psst," a voice whispered, "say goodbye!"

He jerked his head around, searching for the source of the voice. "Oh no," the Boss moaned, clutching his head. "The voices are back…"

"No they're not!" the voice said. "It's me, Troy! I'm speaking through the door!"

Giovanni jumped up and tried to look as casual as possible, smoothing his hair back again. He coughed loudly. "Oh…yes. I knew that the whole time. Of course. Obviously. Now, what was that?"

"Say goodbye!"

"Why?" he snapped.

"I dunno; just do it!"

"_Fine_." He paused, looked up for a second, thought very deeply, and then said, "You know, a lot of people have lost faith in Kanto, and for what Kanto stands for." He sighed dramatically and gestured to himself. "But I, Giovanni, am one of the living examples of what a wonderful region this is. I am one of the few kind, loving people in this region. So I just like to say thank you for your support of Team Rocket, and God Bless you."

"Now where did I put my gin? Give me a cigarette. I feel like murdering someone. And where's that Grunt Morgan? She the first on my schedule. Oh. There you are. How about you and I get i-"

"And God bless us, everyone!" Dragona declared happily, randomly swooping in.

* * *

_WILL DONOVAN EVER BE NOTICED_?_ WILL TROY EVER CURE HER SHOPPING ADDICTION_? _WILL GIOVANNI EVER SING HIS OWN SONG? WILL MIRROR B. EVER GET A LIFE? AND WHY DOES DRAGONA SEEM TO POP UP EVERYWHERE?_

_FIND OUT NEXT TIME ON…FIERY SAPPHIRE!_

(Does the happy dance)

WHOOT! 50 FLIPPIN' REVIEWS FOR THIS DAMN GOOD FANFIC! YIPEE!

No, seriously, I didn't really think I could get this far. But this is awesome! Thanks guys!

Well- more musical in the next chapter; more for Ellen's part, at least. Hope you enjoyed the little Rocket Musical. If you're wondering, here's the list of songs in order that I used.

P.S- I don't own any of these songs.

_1.) Good Morning Baltimore- Hairspray **(Altered)**_

_2.) Kung Fu Fighting- Carl Douglas_

_3.) Class- Chicago **(Altered)**_

_4.) Mr. Cellophane- Chicago_

_5.) Stayin' Alive- Bee Gees_

There'll be a lot more songs in the next chapter, I swear on my…pet tissue's grave!

That was lame.

Anyway, I don't own any of the songs, and I added some quotes in there that I don't own either. I don't own the Team Rocket Water commercial; my friend gave me permission to use that. I just Rocket-ized it. But I own all my characters. Oh, and I don't own Dragona; she'll be in ze next chappie to!

Well, see ya in a week!

REVIEW!


	30. The Utterly Musical Chapter: Part Two

Voted Second Weirdest Chapter, hereeeeeeessssss Chapter 30! Wh00t! Well, if it's weird, blame summer fun and vacations. Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

Fiery Sapphire

Chapter 30 (Wh00t)

The Utterly Music Chapter Part 2

It was mid-afternoon, and Ellen and co. were sitting around the Ninja Gym with Koga and Abby, lounging around. Charles had a cold glass of lemonade in his claw, Feolan had sunglasses on, and everyone was in generic beach attire. Abby stifled a large yawn.

"Ahh, it's great when the writer takes a vacation," Abby sighed, slathering more tanning oil on despite it being September and getting a bit chilly. Koga had dozed off and was snoring loudly, and the woman applied a bright green lipstick to her lips. "Now I can work on my tan."

"Characters deserve a break now and then," Charles agreed.

Phil was standing on a miniature surfboard, wearing a small pair of swim trunks, and singing happily. "_If everybody had an ocean, across the Kanto Way, then everybody'd be surfin' like Cinnabari-a! You'd seem 'em wearing their baggies, Jirachi sandals too! A bushy, bushy blonde hairdo- Surfin' Kanto Way!_"

The Anti-Trainer sighed. "Let's hope Flameboo doesn't come back anytime soo- OH DAMN, SHE'S BACK!" Ellen jumped up from her lounge chair in surprise and everyone looked up from what they were doing. There was a momentary pause, confusion insured, and suddenly everyone sprang into action, putting away beach items and getting back to their normal attire.

As if everything bad could happen at once, there came a loud knock on the door.

"I'LL GET IT!" Koga screamed over everyone, trying to cover up his dangerously small, hot-pink Speedo with a brightly colored, floral print towel. He hobbled over to the door, but tripped over Feolan who was just lying in the middle of the floor, yelling to add to the commotion.

Ellen jumped over the two and yelled over her shoulder, "You're not helping, Feolan!" She reached for the doorknob.

"But I like being annoying," the Mightyena whined pathetically, just as she swung open the door. The entire crew stopped what they were doing and turned to the door. Abby's mouth hung open, eyebrows raised.

It was…

Gary Oak?

Everyone froze to stare at the young, brown-haired man who had just entered the room, looking quite out of place in his impeccable white lab coat. "Uh…hello?" he asked uncertainly, frowning and scanning the room. "I…um...guess I'm interrupting something, but…I was just in town and this…er…_thing_ pulled me to this gym."

On queue, Gary wiggled his weighed arm into the doorway, and Ellen and Co. gasped loudly.

Feetloaf Crunch?

"WOOF," the man-made Pokémon boomed.

As everyone gasped, the scene faded out, and a random voice started to sing to the tune of the Pokémon Theme Song:

_I gonna be a bit depressed,  
Like no one really cares!  
But I have a damn weird quest,  
Like fighting millionaires.  
I am running across Kanto,  
Flipping far and wide!  
Sometimes I don't know where to go,  
And once I almost died…  
Pokémon!  
I'm Fiery!  
It's nobody's destiny!  
Pokémon!  
Ooh, we're all so rude,  
In a world that's surely screwed…  
Pokémon!  
This does suck,  
It looks like we're out of luck!  
Let's all hope we don't get struck…  
Pokémon!  
Gotta free 'em all!_

_Gotta free 'em all!_

_Pokémon!_

"Gary Oak?" Ellen asked, as the music died down and everyone resumed freaking out. "What brings you here?"

"Ellen?" Gary responded, going wide-eyed. " Feetloaf Crunch dragged me in, but besides- I haven't seen you for…you know…years! The last time I saw you was when you came to Pallet Town for a day and we both TP'd Ash Ketchum's house!"

"Good times," the Anti-trainer said, lost in nostalgia, "good times."

Abby immediately zipped in front of Ellen, glaring at her. "You _KNOW_ Gary Oak? The _one_ and _only_ Gary Oak? Gary _OAK_? _GAR-_"

"You can stop emphasizing now," Koga said, chugging down a Pina Colada with the speed of a Dodrio all while trying to put his ninja shirt back on.

"Alright, alright. _BUT._ Gary Oak is the most well-known scientist in the region! Every since Ash whupped his ass in their last battle, he's dedicated his life to science. _And_ he's been voted the second-most handsome bachelor in Kanto by _Death, Eleventeen, _and_ Metropolitan _magazines!"

Gary frowned. "Really?" he asked in genuine surprise. "Why don't they ever tell me these things?"

"You got that right," Abby barked, shaking a fist in his face. "You're practically famous, man. Anyway, Ellen knows you? You guys were _friends_?"

Both Ellen and Gary shook their heads. "It was more of an allegiance sort of thing," Gary explained, "we both hated Ash, so we spent our time pulling pranks on him and making his life miserable."

"Hey," the Anti-Trainer laughed, "remember that time we got him to think Professor Oak was his dad?"

"Ha! And that other time; when we made him think the Rocket Boss was his dad?"

"And the other time, when we made him think he was Jewish?"

"What about when we egged his house?"

"And we told him he was pregnant, and he believed it!"

"And that-" Koga cupped a hand over Gary's mouth.

"Enough nostalgia," the gym leader growled. "We need to find out about Viola, _and_ Feetloaf Crunch."

Gary finally seemed to catch onto the conversation. "Viola? As in _Mayor_ Viola? She and a bunch of townsfolk just sang me a welcome song. It was something like…_Good Morning Fuchsia_."

"I know," Abby gushed, practically swooning over Gary. "Did you hear anything else about her?"

"Apart from her being a bit…uh…abrupt in ending her sentences, that's all. She _did_ say something about a party, though…"

"Party?" Charles questioned diligently, stroking his chin in a wise sort of manner. He opened his mouth to say something, just as there was a knock on the door.

Koga mumbled something about, 'to many random jackasses,' and swung open the door. From the sudden squeaking noise from Koga; the scary ninja master himself; everyone knew it had to be Viola.

"Hello there," Mayor Viola said suddenly, shaking his hand with the same death-grip. She leaned over his shoulder and glimpsed the others, raised her eyebrows. "Koga. I hate to bother you. I see you have company. But. I'm hosting something. A party. Tonight. You're all invited." She gestured to everyone. "In honor of my term as Mayor. Be there. Or be square. You're choice."

Koga faltered and nodded. "Oh, that's very nice-"

"Great," she said, jamming a fistful of envelopes into his palm. "Glad you could come. See you tonight. _Don't_ be late."

"Okay, by-" Viola slammed the door in his face, and the Gym Leader walked back and explained their current situation, but the others were discussing something else. Something _very, very_ important that would quite possibly lead to a song.

Abby was pointing at the door. "Oh, my, god. Ellen, did you see Viola's butt? It was _so_ big. She looks like one of those rap guys' girlfriends," she scoffed loudly. "But, y'know, who understands those rap guys?"

"People only talk to her because she looks like a total prostitute, 'kay? I mean her butt is just so big," Ellen scoffed in the same exact tone, acting like a total idiot.

"I can't believe it's just so round, it's like, out there! I mean – gross," Phil screeched, sounding quite odd.

Abby frowned. "She's just so…weird!"

Meanwhile, Gary was sweating heavily and turned to Ellen. "Ellen! I gotta tell you something!"

"Speak up."

Gary pointed at the door from which Viola left. "_I like big butts and I can not lie, you other brothers can't deny; that when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in your face you get sprung!_" Now Gary acquired a microphone and a baseball cap, which he put on backwards and started rapping.

Koga even joined in, sporting some 'bling-bling.' "_Ya wanna pull out your through, 'cause you notice that butt was stuffed deep in the skirt she's wearing_ _I'm hooked and I can't stop staring! Oh baby, I wanna get wit'cha, and take your picture! My homeboys tried to warn me, but with that butt you got makes me feel so horny_!"

"_Ooh, Rump-o'-smooth-skin, you say you wanna get in my Benz_?" Gary sang, which Ellen started break-dancing for the hell of it. "_Well, use me, use me, 'cause you ain't that average groupy! I've seen them dancin', the hell with romancin'! She's sweat, wet, got it goin' like a turbo 'Vette. I'm tired of magazines, sayin' flat butts are the thing_. _Take the average black man and ask him that she gotta pack much back_."

"_So, fellas_!" Feolan yelled.

"_YEAH_?" every male Pokémon answered.

"_Has your girlfriend got the butt_?"

"What's a butt?" Phil asked Charles in the middle of the song. The Charizard just shook his head.

"_Tell_ _'em to shake it!_"

"_SHAKE IT_!"

"_Shake it_!"

"_SHAKE IT_!"

"_Shake that healthy butt_," Feolan sang, "_Baby got back_!"  
After the music ended, everyone got back into sitting positions, and Koga handed out the invitations. Abby opened hers immediately.

"You are cordially invited," she read slowly, "to a Masquerade party hosted by Mayor Viola; held in the Warren's newly renovated home. Co-"

"Is this party a Masquerade party just so the writer could add a song from Phantom of the Opera and crack wise-ass jokes in the chapter?" Gary asked rudely, but no one answered him.

Abby shot him a glare and resumed reading out loud. "_As I was saying…_"

"I'm not going," Feolan announced, crossing his 'arms'. "Costume parties are for nerds. It's like Halloween without the candy."

"Actually Feolan," Kyoshi mumbled, sorting through the invitations, "I don't think you're even invited. I mean, everyone else got one besides you…"

Feolan's attitude changed immediately. "_WHAT_? _Me_; not invited to a _PARTY_?"

Kyoshi nodded.

"THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!" the Mightyena declared, jumping up. He shook a fist in the air. "Mark my words; I _will_ have revenge on you, Mayor Viola! _Mark my words_…"

"ANYWAYS," Abby practically screamed, her nails digging into the invitation, "Cost-" she paused to make sure no one would interrupt her again and breathed a sigh of relief. "Costumes are a must. 9:30, sharp. Don't. Be. Late."

"_Love, Viola_!" Koga finished in a mimicking, girly voice, ripping his invitation in two. "Oi. You couldn't make me go to that party _anytime_. You guys can go on. _I'm_ staying here."

There were various jeers of 'party-pooper!'

Ellen jerked a finger at him. "Man, you may be the Gym Leader here, but you better come to that party with us!"

"You can't tell me what to do."

"Oh yeah? What if the party is an evil scheme?"

"That'd be lame," Feolan yelled.

Koga jumped up. "I need to train the ninjas, though. Abby wanted training."

"Not anymore!" the green ninja declared jovially, also standing up. "I'm goin' to the party and making a name for myself!" She turned to Ellen. "How about this. We'll try and find Dragona and get ready for the party."

Generally everyone agreed.

Besides Koga, of course.

"I'm not going," Koga announced again, crossing his arms. "You can't make me. There's _no_ way possible I…am…_going_."

* * *

"I can't believe I'm going," Koga said glumly. 

The group; (including the recently found Dragona, claiming to have just visited Rocket HQ and bleeped out a vulgar sentence uttered by Giovanni;) was standing in front of a costume store, looking up at the flashy sign obviously stating: COSTUME STORE. Feetloaf Crunch had disappeared from Gary's arm and was nowhere to be found.

Abby put her arm around Koga's shoulders in an act to console him. "Awww, it's okay, Koga," she said, patting him on the back. "You get through it. I'll pick out a great costume for you."

"I want to be a ninja. I just want my ninja suit."

"Well, according to _The Book of Cheesy Party Clichés to Annoy your Reader with_," she paused to wave a fat, hardcover book in his face, "when going to costume parties, you must always be as vague as possible with costumes."

"That's dumb," Dragona announced, crossing her arms.

"Here's an example. Say…I want to be a Bulbasaur. I wear a green dress and an eye-mask vaguely resembling a Bulbasaur's face. Volia; I'm a Bulbasaur," Abby explained, stuffing the book away.

"I hate it," Ellen said.

"Blame the authoress," Gary said.

Phil pulled out a huge, deadly bazooka and was looking for his target. Everyone stared at him with shock.

"_WHERE WAS THAT THING DURING THE FRICKIN' SILPH CO. MISSION_?" Ellen finally screamed at him, causing the Mudkip to cry and the bazooka to _poof_ away.

"My baby!" Charles cried in a girly voice, cradling Phil.

While Charles and Kyoshi, the 'Sitcom Parents', were tending to Phil, the rest of the group walked in to the decrepit costume store run by an old, frail man. Accessories hung from the ceiling. Masks lined up on the walls. Costumes were everywhere. Dead bodies were lined up on the checkout table.

Nah, I'm just kidding about the dead bodies.

And thus the trying on of costumes began. The group behaved like little kids in a candy shop, pulling thi-

"_I'll take you to the candy shop; I'll let you lick the lollypop! Go 'head girl, don't you stop, keep going 'til you hit the spot_!"

"HOLY SHIT, FEOLAN, DO YA HAVE TO MAKE A PEVERTED MESS OUT OF _EVERYTHING_?" Ellen screamed at the Mightyena, interrupting the song. "Since you're not buying a costume, go away!"

"Ohoho," Feolan's voice laughed demonically, "I think I might have found a costume…hehe…I'm wearin' a bra…hehe…girl stuff…hehe…"

"Holy shit."

* * *

To make a long story short, they all got costumes. Even Koga. But he wasn't as willing to go with the theme, though… 

Ellen held up an owl-looking mask up to her face, resembling the brownish color of her dress. "Why am I being a Hoothoot? I hate Hoothoots. Of everybody in this whole freakin' group, _I_ get the Hoothoot. And I'm wearing a brown dress. Why do I have to wear a brown dress? I look like crap. No, seriously, I _really_ look like I stepped in a pile of deep, deep-"

"Shit," Gary exclaimed, buttoning his dark purple suit. "I get the Muk, for Chissake. I could have been a Gengar, but _nooooo_, scientist needs to be the disgusting pile of sludge. The only ones who got what they wanted were Abby and the Pokémon!"

"Lucky," muttered Dragona, fitting a pair of small Dragonite antenna on her head. "Dragonites are fatasses. I knew this Dragonite once, and she at these _huge_ wheels of cheddar cheese. I mean, it was gross, man. But it was still pretty cool!"

Abby skipped merrily out of the costume store, waving a green Treeko mask in there faces. She held it up to her face. "Trreeeekkkooo!" the ninja proclaimed with a trill.

"Where're everyone else?" the Pokémorph asked.

"They're all still in the store," she answered, jerking her thumb back. "Charles is being a Charizard, Kyoshi is an Espeon, Feolan sort of disappeared, and Phil is being-"

As if on cue, a dark, shadowy, rectangular figure lumbered out of the costume store, and Phil appeared, his little head sticking out of a large Box of Wheaties. The Mudkip grinned as the rest of the Pokémon filed out.

"Is Koga coming out?" Gary asked, but all he got was a sly smirk from Abby.

"I'm not coming out!" Koga screamed from the store, answering their question.

"Yes you are…!" Abby said.

"No I'm not! You guys go without me!"

"Yes you are coming out!"

"No I'm- AHH!"

Abby marched into the store and dragged the Gym Leader out, slamming the door behind him. Once Koga was in full view, everyone burst out laughing.

Apparently Koga _wanted _to be Man of Popsicle at first, because he had on the full superhero attire, but it seemed he had changed his mind and over the superhero costume put on a large, bulging potato costume instead.

"YOU'RE MAN OF POTATO!" Dragona screeched, sending Ellen into a fit of hysteria.

"It's _not_ funny!" Koga grumbled, doing his best to cross his arms. "No one laughs at a ninja and lives!"

"SPIDER-POTATO! AHAHAHA!"

Gary rolled his eyes. "I'd really _love_ to stay here all evening and make fun of Koga, but we need to make plans for the party."

Everyone quieted down and laid out the situation. Abby and Koga would smooze with the crowd in hopes of finding out anything important- the untimely death of the Warren, Mayor Viola's strange personality- anything. Ellen, Gary, Dragona and the Pokémon would stray off deeper into the house, looking for any suspicious material. They would meet each other back in the foyer at eleven-thirty.

"And if we get caught…?" Gary asked suspiciously.

"You were looking for the bathroom," Koga answered.

"_All of us_?"

"What? You don't like my idea? Fine!" He turned away. "Make something else up, genius."

Ellen frowned at Gary, "Uhh…how about we _don't_ get caught? That way we don't have to make up stupid excuses. And besides, me and the crew have experience sneaking around dangerous places, right guys?"

"The funny thing is, we got caught both times with some bad consequences," Charles muttered sardonically, looking at his Charizard mask with genuine nostalgia. He grinned. "But for the most part, we got through it all. So yeah, we're good at sneaking."

"So it's settled!" Dragona declared. "Now come on, let's get to that party! It's just over there!"

The Pokémorph pointed over to where the Warren's house had originally been. Instead of the small house there was a huge, gray mansion that was lit up with light. People had already begun to attend the party.

Ellen's jaw dropped. "They…they did that in two frickin' two months?"

"You'd be surprised how fast Machamp can work," Abby muttered to her, beginning to walk down the sidewalk. "Now, come on, we've got a party to crash."

"Let's hope it doesn't end up as badly as the S. S. Anne did," Charles sighed, and they began their decent.

* * *

The Warren's House was even bigger then they expected. The foyer was massive, and with so many people crowded in it, it was hard to tell where everything was. Marble floors were everywhere. Decretive wallpaper. Music. Tiny little wiener hors d'oeuvres in the little buns. The whole nine yards. 

"You wonder how she gets so much money," Gary mumbled in Ellen's ear. "I don't think she's been Mayor for that long."

Meanwhile, Abby looked worried and tapped on the Anti-Trainer's shoulder. "Hey Ellen…um…I sort of have a problem. I can't tell who's who..."

Ellen looked around, and sure enough, everyone in the party was unrecognizable. "Oh shit…" she said slowly

"This is bad," Kyoshi whispered, but then said, "but could work to our advantage. If we don't know who anyone is, then _they_ certainly wouldn't recognize us in our costumes.

"I just hope no one recognizes me," Koga growled, just as a woman dressed as a Chikorita walked up to him.

"Koga?" the woman gushed, frowning at him, "is that you?" When he didn't respond, she giggled, and the leaf that she had fixed in her hair drooped. "It's Erika, silly! Remember, the gym leader? Love the costume, by the way. Well, I went through anger management class, so I'm completely calm now."

Koga gargled.

"Me and the other Gym Leaders are going to get drinks in the dining room," she continued nonchalantly, waving her hand, "Care to join?"

"The _other_ Gym Leaders?" the ninja asked.

"Of course! Practically everyone in Kanto was invited to this party."

"Everyone?"

"Yeah, everyone," continued a man, disguised as a Regirock but revealing himself to be Brock. He eyed all the females in the room lecherously and paused to slap a random woman's butt, who turned out to be Agatha of the Elite Four.

"YOU MUST RESPECT YOUR ELDERS!" Agatha screamed, taking off her Misdreavus mask and whacking Brock across the face with it.

"Well…I guess I could have _one_ drink," Koga said slowly, glancing back at a group of young Bug Catchers who were doing the Macarena. "It's a party, anyway."

"Great, Koga! That's the spirit!" A Raichu exclaimed from across the crowd; Lt. Surge. The group of Gym Leaders took off without a trace, and Abby hurried after them.

"Wait for us!" Ellen yelled, darting forward only to run into a man in a classy gray suit. Without second thought, she glared fiercely at him as Gary and Dragona moved forward. "Watch where you're going, jackass!"

The man shot her a scornful, uninterested glare, revealing a Rhydon mask. A woman dressed as a Delcatty peered over his shoulder.

"You can't talk to us like that," the woman breathed at Ellen, clutching at her large diamond necklace, but Kyoshi pulled the Anti-Trainer away before she could respond.

"Less arguing, more walking," the Persian muttered, weaving through the crowd. She stopped suddenly a sighed. "Well, we lost Abby and Koga, we don't know who anyone is, and so far; we've made no progress whatsoever."

"Oh, the woes of the weird and rowdy!" Phil exclaimed, throwing his pudgy arms out. "How sad it is to be a group of misfits traveling the region! Stuck in a party full of the rich and famous; aristocrats just waiting to tear our limbs off, one by one!"

Dragona stared down at the Mudkip. "You _seriously_ need some help, dude."

"At least _one_ of us will have their head bitten off by a polo player," the Mudkip continued morbidly, entering one of his 'fits'. "And another will be drained of their bodily fluids by gym leaders, and another will be clawed up unmercifully by a group of fashionistas. And I think Ellen deserves special treatment. So, Ellen'll be eaten alive by-"

The Anti-Trainer clasped a hand over his mouth and whispered, "Viola, if you don't _shut the hell up_!"

Mayor Viola was easy to recognize, not because she had her mask off at the moment and was conversing with everyone she met, but because of her costume choice.

"She's a frickin' Jigglypuff," Dragona muttered to her comrades, as Viola swooped over them like a pink, jolly bird.

"Hello guests," the Mayor said cheerfully, grinning. "Wonderful party. Right?"

No one answered, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Of course," she gushed, rolled her eyes dramatically. "Well. There's only one bad thing. Can't recognize anyone here. Now can we?"

Silence.

She frowned. "I'm asking. _You_. For your names."

Gary spoke first, a slight stutter. "Um…oh yeah, M-Mayor. Well, I'm Gary…'couse…and these are my t-two…f-f-friends…um…"

"_Cough_Ingrid_cough_," Dragona coughed slowly, chewing on her own fake name. It was sort of hard to lie when you were a Pokémorph, but she seemed to be getting along.

Ellen chewed on her lip and tugged on her earring. "I'm Jennifer Posey- no, hot damn! Sorry, I mean Ell- ahh, no. My _real_ name is Fieryyy- ugh…shit…!"

Viola glared at her.

Ellen looked from Gary, to Viola, to Dragona, and back again. Gary took this as a silent call for help, so, using his best smoozing skills, took a deep breath, held out his hand, and said the sentence that would lead to another crazy song:

"_Viola, what a splendid party! The prelude to a new mayor,_" he sang, shaking her hand.

Dragona joined in jovially. "_Quite a night, I'm impressed_!"

Viola shrugged and blushed, forgetting the Anti-Trainer. "_Well, one does one's best_!"

"_Here's to us_!" the three sang, grabbing glasses of who-knows-what and toasting. "_A toast for the city_!"

"_What a pity that Miss. Ellen can't be here_…" Viola said, staring at Ellen. The Anti-Trainer tugged Gary and Dragona back into the crowd along with the Pokémon, and Oh my God, it looked like everyone was about to open their pie holes at sing. Yeah, basically all of Kanto. Wow. Everybody in costumes. Dude, this is weird. Even the Gym Leaders. Yeah, they even popped their heads out of the card room for the song.

And it began.

"_Masquerade! Paper faces on parade Masquerade! Hide your face so the world will never find you! Masquerade! Every face a different shade! Masquerade! Look around, there's another mask behind you!_" everybody sang, doing whatever random dance they enjoyed. One man disguised as a Ludicolo, also sporting a huge afro, was dancing the Hustle. A couple; the man, a Sneasel with a prominent limp, and the woman, a Jynx with a head of bushy red hair, were dancing in a way middle school chaperones would deem 'inappropriate.'

The Gym leaders even sang! "_Flash of mauve! Splash of puce! Fool and king, ghoul and goose! Green and black, Queen and priest! Trace of rouge! Face of beast! Faces! Take your turn, take a ride! On the merry-go-round; in an inhuman race!_ _Eye of gold! True is false…Who is who? Curl of lip, swirl of gown! Ace of hearts, face of clown! Faces! Drink it in, drink it up! Till you've drowned, in the light- in the sound!_"

"_But who can name the face_?" Charles and Kyoshi questioned, sweeping into the crowd.

"_Masquerade! Grinning yellows, spinning reds! Masquerade! Take your fill, let the spectacle astound you. Masquerade! Burning glances, turning heads! Masquerade! Stop and stare at the sea of smiles around you! Masquerade! Seething shadows; breathing lies! Masquerade! You can fool any friend who ever knew you…Masquerade! Leering satyrs, peering eyes! Masquerade! Run and hide, but a face will still pursue you…_"

The party went back to normal, (for a bit, at least,) and a small crowd gathered together to exchange conversation while everyone else was doing the Chicken Dance, or something weird like that.

"_What a night_!" Viola breathed, grinning.

The man masquerading as a Rhydon was there, and in congratulations he bragged, "_What a crowd! Makes you glad! Makes you proud! All the crème de la crème…_"

"_Watching us, watching them_," the Delcatty-masked woman whispered to her friends, Viola and a Jynx.

"_All our funky fears are in the past_!" the huge afro man sang.

The Sneasel with the limp sang, "_One night of relief, of delight_!"

"_Of Elysian peace, and we can breathe at last! No more notes, no more girl! Here's a health_!" The Rhydon raised his glass.

"_Spin and twirl_!" giggled the females.

All of them toasted. "_Here's a toast! Standing near, all our friends that are here_!"

"_And may the splendor never fade_!" the Rhydon and Delcatty cried. "_What a blessed release_!"

"_And what a masquerade_…" Viola murmured, swooping back into the crowd.

The whole party began to cool again, and meanwhile, Ellen and crew were being separated in the crowd. Dragona and the Pokémon had both disappeared, Gary was as clueless as ever, and Ellen was panicking.

"_Holy crap_," Ellen sang in a horrible voice, "_this is so freaky. Look, we're in deep shit. Oh holy crap…_"

"_But what are we doing? Abby and Koga split_!" Gary sang with despair. "Wait a sec. I'll try and find them. Let's stop singing for now."

"_Gary, get back here you dumbass, they'll see_!" the Anti-Trainer squeaked, pulling him back.

"_Well, then let them see! We're going to the freaking 'bathroom'! Ellen, why are you so stupid?_"

"_Shut the hell up_…" Ellen growled.

"_Okay, fine then_," the scientist replied timidly.

"_Just wait a minute_…"

"_Whatever_!"

"_You'll understand in time_!"

Gary bit his lower lip and crossed his legs, doing the 'Bathroom Dance.' "No, I seriously need to go the bathroom! I had _way_ to much punch to drink and my metabolism is really quick, so-"

"Hot damn, Gary, just wait a second!" She pushed him away. "Find Abby and Koga for me. I'll try and find Dragona and my Pokémon."

Gary saluted her goofily and marched off into a crowd of trainers who were all simultaneously doing the Cotton Eyed Joe, even though the song _Masquerade_ was still playing. People started doing a conga line. One little Lass had a whole nightclub scenario going; complete with flashing lights and a dance floor. As Ellen was walking through the crowd, a small, short little teenager approached her.

"Hiya," he sniveled in a pathetic voice, his Slowpoke mask slowly slipping off. "You're _purdy_. Wanna dance with me?" He paused to inhale a huge breath from his retainer and was sent into a coughing fit.

"Uh…do I know you?" Ellen asked him.

"Remember? I battled you right before you went to Lavender Town. And you killed my Slowpoke."

"Oh yeah! Sorry 'bout that. The Slowpoke, I mean."

"It's okay. So…" the Nerd grinned. "Wanna dance?"

"Screw you!" Ellen declared, and suddenly the Nerd turned into a huge, purple banana for no apparent reason except the reader's enjoyment. So the Anti-Trainer moved on, leaving the man-sized fruit behind.

So, throughout the little break in singing, a few other people bothered her, like a four-some consisting of two women and two men who were _sure_ the knew her, but no one could tell who was who. After a while she finally found Dragona and Pokémon, who were enjoying a game of Twister.

Dragona was reading a Twister spinner upside-down. "Uh…left earlobe on Purple…and…tail on…plaid."

"The only problem is…we don't have earlobes," Charles growled, currently twisted into a pretzel shape despite his bulk.

"I CAN'T FEEL MY TOES!" Phil whined, sitting on the sidelines.

Kyoshi frowned, levitating above the Twister Mat. "You're not even playing, Phil."

"Oh! Hey Ellen!" Dragona exclaimed once she realized the Anti-Trainer had appeared. "We've been looking everywhere for ya!"

"She's lying," Charles said dully.

"_SHUT UP_! So, anyway; where's Gary?"

"Looking for Abby and Koga. Seen 'em anywhere?"

"Right." The Pokémorph scratched her head. "They were playing cards with the Gym Leaders. But one guy already left the party…Koga? Nah…I think it was the last Gym Leader. What's his name again? Oh yeah; it's-" she suddenly looked at an imaginary watch on her wrist. "Crap! Look at the time! We need to go back and sing the ending of the song!"

"Fuh?" Ellen asked dumbly.

"Sing! Ya know; _Masquerade, paper faces on parade…_! That!"

"What the hell?"

Dragona rolled her eyes. "Just come on!"

So, the group ran back into the foyer and met back with Gary, who had no luck finding the others, but did succeed in going the bathroom, which was a _huge_ accomplishment for him.

Anyway, the entire party filed back into the foyer, opened their mouths, and sang: "_Masquerade…! Paper faces on parade! Masquerade! Hide your face so the world will never find you! Masquerade! Every face a different shade! Masquerade! Look around, there's another mask behind you_!"

"_MASQUERADE! Burning glances, turning heads! Masquerade! Stop and stare at the sea of smiles around you! Masquerade! Grinning yellows, Spinning reds! Masquerade! Take your fill, let the spectacle astound you_…"

Suddenly, there was a small explosion from the top of the stairs, and most of the Trainers gasped and staggered backwards. A figure emerged from the smoke, wearing a black cloak covering most of its face and body, and a sickle in one hand.

It slowly began it's decent down the stairs, taking long, slow steps. Whatever it was, and for some strange reason, it had white paws.

"_Why so silent, good Trainers_?" it sang, which totally gave it away that it was Feolan, because he was emitting a series of snarls, growls, and barks. "_Did you think that I had left you for good? Have you missed me, good Trainers? I have come here for revenge. Here, I bring the finished job_…_Old rotten eggs_!" He gestured to the window, and sure enough, _someone_ had egged the place without mercy. The man with the huge afro fainted. "_I advise you to obey, my instructions should be stressed. Remember there are worse things than an uninvited guest_…"

"Who _is_ that mysterious cloaked figure?" Gary asked, barely above a whisper.

Ellen, Dragona, and the Pokémon groaned as Feolan looked up and waved to them, sporting a goofy smile. The entire party turned to face them.

"Um…WE DON'T KNOW THAT DUDE, WHOEVER HE IS!" Ellen yelled to everyone.

"YEAH!" Dragona agreed, nodding her head. "AND…AND WE DON'T KNOW WHAT HE'S SAYING, EITHER, RIGHT…UM…NOT-JENNIFER?"

"FO' SHO'!" the Anti-Trainer said.

Charles rolled his eyes. "Time to go…" he breathed, pulling the two idiots back and making a beeline for an empty hall. Viola popped up from the crowd and followed them, throwing her mask off. Feolan looked out to the crowd, laughed manically, and ran after Ellen and co.

"So…what should we do now?" one trainer asked.

"Let's do the Chicken Dance!" someone suggested.

"HORRAY!"

And everyone did.

* * *

"Which way to the office?" Charles demanded, looking around the hall frantically. "It's gotta be _somewhere_!" 

"Check in this room!" yelled Ellen, opening the door only to discover two random Rocket Grunts making out. Again. "Uh…whoops?"

"What about here?" Dragona asked, and pulled open a door containing a man showering.

Gary grabbed a doorknob. "I'm positive this is the one!" He swung open the door and saw a girl typing something on a laptop, giggling hysterically. The group chose to ignore her and continue on running.

"GET. BACK. HERE!" Viola screeched from behind them, finally gone a bit crazy. The woman could run incredibly fast for a person in 6 inch stilettos, not a mention a long, pink dress. "YOU CAN'T RUN!"

Feolan's eyes widened from under his cloak as he ran past the slowest of the group, Gary and spotted a door. The Mightyena swung open the door and piled everyone into the room, closing the door on Viola's and barricading it with a chair.

The group had ended up in Viola's bedroom; a huge suite above Fuchsia City, complete with a balcony and plasma television. Charles swooped over to the edge of the veranda and looked down. He turned a vivid shade of green, and to make matters worse, Viola was banging on the door with all her might.

"Um…Ellen?" Charles whispered nervously. "I'm feeling a little sick…"

"Well get better quick, 'cause you're gonna fly us out of here!" she snapped at him, pushing an armchair over to the door.

"Er…argh…I don't think I can-"

"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" Phil screamed, running around in circles. "I told you this would happen! We'd all be killed! KILLED! And now it's gonna happen! I told ya! I toldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldya…" he continued repeating the same line over and over again, running around the room.

"Shut up, Phil!" Dragona yelled, trying to catch the small Mudkip. The bedroom door was cracking in half from Viola's fists, and no matter how much Gary blocked the door, the woman plowed through. Ellen ran over to her bedside table and began to root through the Mayor's things, looking for whatever she suspicious material she could find.

The Anti-Trainer grinned suddenly and held up a small object. "Got it! This _so_ says that Viola is evil!" She displayed a cell phone to everyone in the room.

"Oh, yes," Kyoshi said dully. "Cell phones are the root of evil."

Ellen frowned and marched over to her. "Does _this_ say anything to you?" she asked, displaying a screen that read: '_Team Rocket Rules, LOL!1!'_.

"A bit," the Persian confessed, just as Viola burst open the door.

"ELLEN!" Viola screamed, the door coming down with a crash. The woman made her way through the debris and marched straight up to Ellen, snatching the cell phone from her hand. "I see you found out about it. My cell phone. _And_ my secret. Good job."

"So what kind of 'shitty little evil scheme' does Team Rocket have up its sleeve, huh?" Ellen asked sarcastically. "Whatdoya want? Money? Power?"

Viola shrugged and raised her eyebrows nonchalantly. "No. Just to kill you."

The Anti-Trainer's shoulders sunk. "That's pretty boring. And besides, you don't stand a chance against me. You don't even have a weapon or anything!"

"I'm actually quite strong," the Mayor countered, "and besides. You'll be happy to know something. You're on top. Of the Wanted list. For Team Rocket."

She stopped and said, "Is that why you killed the Warren? To piss me off?"

"Hey." she snapped quickly, turning away, "I didn't kill him. A bad glass of Orange Juice. He drank it. Got him really sick. I put him out of his misery. Team Rocket is nice like that. You know?"

"Sure we know." Charles rolled his eyes. "So Ellen. When do you want me to torch her?"

The Anti-Trainer motioned for him to be quiet. "Wait a second."

Viola raised her eyebrows at them and turned back to Ellen. "So. Yeah, I _was_. From Team Rocket. After all. I heard all about you. How'd you think I knew? Your name?"

"I never told anyone there my frickin' name."

"You let it slip. Once," the insane woman declared, cackling. "But I'll let you figure it out. Yourself. Now. Time to die! For you!"

"Is it me, or are her sentences getting choppier and choppier?" Gary muttered to Dragona.

Meanwhile, Phil was still screaming. "toldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldyatoldya-"

Viola suddenly whipped around to face him and screamed, "SHUT UP! YOU FAT! UGLY! LITTLE MUDKIP!"

Phil instantly shut down. The Mudkip squinted, bit his lower lip; his eyes started to tear. Charles and Kyoshi slowly began to advance on the Mayor, but Phil said calmly, "Viola…you're _bad_. And…and I think you're mean, too. Team Rocket is mean. So…that's why I'm gonna have to kill you."

"What did he say?" Viola asked sharply, tapping Ellen on the arm.

"He said he was gonna kill you," she answered, staring at Phil.

"What?"

"He was gonna-"

The Mudkip suddenly let out a high pitched, raspy screech and jumped on Viola's head, sending everyone reeling back. Phil began scratching and biting and doing whatever harmful thing he could do for all he was worth, sending The Rocket screaming. Viola began running around the room, crashing into walls and other slightly humorous things.

"GET HIM OFF OF MEEEEEE!" Viola screamed, running dangerously close to the balcony.

"DIE, SCUM!" Phil cried demonically, giggling. "I'LL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF!"

Well, the Mudkip didn't do that, but something did happen that was almost as bad. As Viola was still panicking, she stumbled closer and closer to the balcony until she backed up against the narrow ledge and with a small push from Feolan, tumbled over the edge, screeching and screaming; and fell head-first to her death, Phil still clawing at her. Five seconds later there was a very satisfying thump, and for some strange reason a flash of light.

"My baby!" Charles cried, panicking for Phil's sake. "My baby is dead!" The Charizard continued to spaz until he heard a scuffling noise coming from the balcony ledge and a small flipper appeared, grasping the edge it.

"I'm alivvvveeeee!" a familiar voice whined, and Phil perched on the balcony nimbly, blinking a pair of light brown eyes.

Kyoshi looked like she was in shock. "Why Phil- you…um…" she trailed off, and the Charizard took out a huge handkerchief and blew his nose loudly.

"They grow up so fast!" he bawled, crushing the newly-evolved Phil in a hug. The Marshtomp started to cry; proof that he was still a huge baby even after evolution.

Suddenly two figured burst out onto the balcony, clothed in black and dark green. The whipped around, striking ninja poses, but slowly calmed down once they saw nothing was wrong. Koga took off his ninja mask first, and then Abby.

"What happened here?" Koga asked them, blinking with surprise. "I thought Viola went after you. Once we heard, we came running up."

"Phil and Feolan pushed her off the edge of the balcony." Dragona jerked her head to indicate the two Pokémon. "If you really want to see Viola; her corpse is down there."

Abby stuck out her tongue with disgust. "Strangely enough, that's cool and gross at the same time." Her eyes traveled over to Feolan, still wearing his Grim Reaper costume. She pointed at him. "Hey! So it was _you_ who crashed the party!"

Feolan grinned at her lecherously. "Yeah. And d'you wanna know something else?" he asked, and before anyone could respond, he took off his robe to display that he was wearing bright pink women's lingerie from Victoria's Secret. "TA DA!" he crowed in all his lacy, silk glory.

Everyone's jaws dropped. Gary groaned and fainted. Koga stared at Ellen with a look that said, 'And this Mightyena is _yours_?'

"Wow." Dragona said. "Just wow."

Ellen shimmied over to Koga and grinned. "So…now that my Pokémon is wearing women's underwear, does this mean I get the badge?"

* * *

Once everything was cleared up, Feolan finally decided to shed his lingerie, Ellen finally coaxed Koga to give her the Soul Badge and Charles, Kyoshi, and Phil got over the fact that Phil had evolved, the group met in front of the Ninja Gym, all saying their goodbyes. 

"Well, thanks for helping Fuchsia City return to normal," Mayor Koga said, shaking Ellen's hand. "Even though we caused mayhem, disruptions, and dead everywhere in a radius of five miles, it was worth it. And plus, now that Abby is the new Gym Leader, it gives me more time to think about the city."

"I GET FREE SODAS EVERY FRIDAY AT BURGER PEASANT NOW THAT I'M A GYM LEADER!" Abby declared loudly, hugging everyone out of sheer joy. "And now that I'm Gym Leader, all my friends can come to important parties and such!"

"Nah, I gotta do my journey thing," Ellen said. "But maybe afterwards; if everything turns out okay."

Dragona agreed. "Yeah, and I gotta work on my flying skills. I haven't mastered the Super-Triple-Awesome-Three-Sixty-Flip-With-Fire. So that's gonna take some time."

"Awww," whined Abby, "come on! If you come with me, you get to rub elbows with all the important people!"

"I'm allergic to important people," Feolan confessed. "They make my nose run."

"We got to go, anyway," Ellen said, pulling her backpack on. "Cinnabar Island, here we come! We don't care if you think we suck! Hot damn! Two more badges, Cinnabar!"

"You're talking to an island, Ellen," Gary said worriedly, but soon forgot about it. "Well, I need to go back to my Lab and conduct more experiments on innocent bystand- I MEAN, dead people. So, I'll be seeing everyone…"

"Wait a second!" Dragona stopped Gary. "Do one more favor for us!"

"Okay, sure."

"We need an ending song!"

Ellen sighed. "Another one? Make it short, though; I'm beat."

Gary shrugged. "Sure, why not. Well…" he cleared his throat and adopted an announcer voice. "I don't know if you like this song or not, but…_Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fuchsia Theater is proud to announce a first. The first time, anywhere there's been an act of this nature. Not only one little lady, but two! You've probably don't know them, but now here they are! Fuchsia's own killer dillers, those scintillating sinners! Abby, Dragona, and Ellen_!"

The three started dancing randomly and sang, "_You can like the life you're living; you can live the life you like! You can even marry Harry, but mess around with Ike. And that's good, isn't it? Grand, isn't it? Great, isn't it? Swell, isn't it? Fun, isn't it? But nothing stays…In fifteen years or so, it's gonna change, you know. But, oh, it's heaven…Nowadays_!"

And the whole group of weirdoes started dancing to whatever type of music they liked; and Gary walked called a taxi and drove away to his lab; Koga went to tend to Mayor-ish duties; Abby and Dragona said their goodbyes to Ellen and both went off to drink some smoothies, and finally Ellen and co. sang,

"AND ALL THAT JAZZZZZZZZZZZ!"

"Yeah!" Phil said in a Jazz-like scenario, while the Marshtomp was smoking a cigarette in a small coffee shop listening to interpretive dance.

Sorry, just kidding.

(cheesy music)

* * *

_**CREDITS!**_

Written by- Flameboo!

Fiery Sapphire created by- Flameboo!

Most characters created by- Flameboo!

Jokes and such by- Flameboo!

Voted Second Weirdest Chapter by- Flameboo and a panel of imaginary judges! And George Bush! And Man of Popsicle!

Music by-

**Surfin' U.S.A** (_Altered_)- The Beach Boys

**Pokémon Theme Song** (_Heavily Altered_)- 4Kids entertainment? Japanese People? Whatever.

**Baby Got Back**- Sir Mix a Lot

**Candy Shop- **50 Cent (Pronounced Fidy Cent)

**Masquerade**- Andrew Lloyd Webber

**Hot Honey Rag**- Chicago

And that's all! Now review and go away so I get some sleep! My fingers are falling off from typing this long of a chapter. DO YOU HEAR ME? MY DAMN FINGERS ARE FALLING OFF! MY INDEX FINGER JUST FELL ON THE GROUND! NOW THIS HOBO ATE MY THUMB OFF! GOD, I HATE HOBOS!

Okay, sorry, got a little hyper there. Well, sorry for such a long wait on the chapter. It just took a looonnnggg time to write, so expect a shorter chapter next time. Wow. Two more badges. I never thought I could write to this point. Anyway, enough reminiscing. Hey! Phil evolved! Sweet!

Well, until the next chapter, me hardies…

Read and Review!

P.S- Did you know that I made _four_ jokes about culture today? Yeah! Abby actually mentioned all four of them. Three were magazines that I changed the names of, and another was a fast-food place.


	31. Silent Revenge

Welcome! Hope you enjoy the chapter, and remember to leave a **REVIEW.**

And _no_, I will _not_ do what I did last year. I went on vacation for 2 weeks, came back, and didn't do another chapter for...two, three months? And now that I'm almost finished, I'm not going to let that happen again. So…here's to motivation and drive!

For some reason, I can make the little seperator lines, so I'm using this: OoO

Fiery Sapphire 31

Silent Revenge

OoO

"But…I don't _wanna_ do it!"

"Oh Phil, you're a water-type. It's just a small, quiet ocean…"

"Actually," Charles corrected Kyoshi, holding up his 'index claw', "the seaway between Fuchsia and Cinnabar is regarded as one of the most dangerous bodies of water ever to be discovered. People drown in it every day. Oh, and let's not forget the Sharpedo and Gyarados who enjoy eating Marshtomp regularly."

Now Phil the Marshtomp began to cry loudly, attracting attention from all sides. The group was standing on the Fuchsia City beach, all ready to surf to Cinnabar Island, except for one problem: Phil was a huge baby.

"Great job, dumbass!" Ellen yelled, whacking the Charizard across the head with her backpack, "now we're _never_ gonna get to Cinnabar!"

"Did someone, like, say, _Cinnabar_, man?" an older teenager approached them, clad in swim trunks. He was the stereotypical 'boy of summer', complete with long, flowing locks, rock-hard abs, and a glistening tan. A surfboard was at his side, and he beat his chest like an ape before saying, "Me and my '_bodacious bod_' can surf you over there, like totally, Scary Girl!"

Ellen took a menacing step forward, and the Beach Dude flinched. "You callin' me Scary Girl?"

He put his hands up in defeat. "No wayyyyyyyyy, Freaky Chick! Don't get so amped over it! Down at Fuchsia Beach, we call everyone weird names, Beach Bunny! Isn't that right, Beach Bum Dude?"

"TOTALLY!" answered a relatively fat man lounging on the beach.

Ellen raised her eyebrows. "So what's your point?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Asking questions and wanting a good answer is totally not excellent and totally bogus, Dudette!"

"Yeah, that's not primo at all!" the Beach Bum Dude said from the side. "Girl, you're just gnarly! And when I say gnarly, I _don't_ mean Gnarlatious!"

"RADICAL!" Surfer Dude yelled.

"AWESOME!"

"OUTRAGEOUS!"

"MONDO!"

"COWABUNGA!" Surfer Dude cried, and with that, raised his surfboard in the air and ran out to sea, yelling all sorts of beach slang. He caught the first wave he could find and was surfing pretty well until a Sharpedo leapt up from the water, tore the man in half, and gnawed contentedly on his torso for awhile, grinning at Ellen and co.

"Bummer," said Beach Bum Man.

"Awww, that's gross, man," Feolan said, muffing his mouth with his paw. "That's enough to make me sick. Ellen, are you sure Charles can't fly us over or something?"

"How am I supposed to know where the hell some little island is?" the Charizard sputtered madly. "And besides, those Gyarados are huge. They could reach me even from way up in the air."

"So…you weren't kidding about the Gyarados and Sharpedo?" Phil asked timidly.

Charles jerked his head back at the Surfer Dude, who was now half-eaten and barely more than a pair of brightly colored swim trunks. "Apparently not."

"Great!" the Marshtomp exclaimed, earning strange looks from his teammates. "I shall now part of the waters of the great sea!" Rubbing his fins together, he stepped up to the surf and with a flourish, spread his fins out, striking a godly pose. Nothing happened.

"Uh…Phil? I hate to break it to you, but you're NOT SOME KIND OF FREAKIN' MOSES," Ellen said sarcastically, pulling him away from his poses. "D'you wanna get yourself killed or something?"

"Yes," he answered brightly. Everyone rolled their eyes, and the ocean behind Ellen bubbled a bit.

"Dude, the ocean is bubbling," Feolan exclaimed obviously, pointing behind the Anti-Trainer. Now the surf started to foam and churn madly, and suddenly a huge Gyarados surfaced from the water, roaring. The group screamed and stumbled back; the Beach Bum Man jumping up but falling again from his obesity.

Charles, surprisingly, almost wet himself, and Kyoshi just held the same cool, calm and 'I-don't-give-a-damn-about-Kanto' sort of expression, even when Ellen toppled over the Persian in an attempt to flee.

The Beach Bum Man was still gurgling, (terrified, of course, but still _gurgling_,) when the Gyarados swooped over to him. The man vanished, and Phil raised his non-existent eyebrows curiously and suddenly screamed, "HEY! UNCLE JEFFERY! OVER HERE!"

Ellen grabbed the Marshtomp by the fins and wrenched him back. She slammed a hand over his mouth, but the massive dragon had already turned its head and stared at them, absorbing the scene.

"_CRAZY_ UNCLE JEFFERY!" Phil yelled again, squirming. In one movement, the Gyarados dove over to them and re-appeared, looking down on them.

It lowered its head, lower and lower, and Feolan bawled like a baby, and Charles sucked his thumb, and Kyoshi blinked; and when it looked like doom was going to come crashing down on everything like a giant, rotten, smelly potato, the Gyarados opened it's mouth and said in a sort of insane voice, "Phil?"

"Yeah!" the Marshtomp giggled. "It's me!"

"How'd you recognize your ole' _crazy_ uncle?" asked the Gyarados wildly, grinning.

Phil grinned. "I recognized the way you eat people!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What the hell is going on here?" Ellen asked Phil. "And who's Uncle Jeffery?"

He pointed to the large Gyarados. "He is. He's my uncle. _Crazy_ uncle, that is!"

"You're kidding."

"Nope!" he cried proudly, and turned to the so-called '_Crazy_ Uncle Jeffery.' "Hiya Uncle Jeffery! Boy, I haven't seen you for a while! How's mom and pop? How's Aunt Petunia? How's Grandpa Tim? How's that hobo that used to live with us? Oh yeah! And…" he gestured behind him. "These are my _bestest, bestest friends in the whole wide world_, Ellen, Charles, Feolan, and Kyoshi! I love them _soooo muuuccchhh_!"

Feolan gagged.

"_Super de Duper_!" Jeffery said brightly, "everyone's been fine. Aunt Petunia had a huge tumor removed from her right eyelid, and Grandpa Tim decided to join a Trucker Society for Tyranitar! Guess what? I just got a tattoo on my retina!" _Crazy_ Uncle Jeffery wriggled with delight. "So…how've you been?"

"Okay," lied Ellen. "Phil's been safe for the entire trip."

"Fantastic," lied Charles. "We kept Phil in the Day Care Center."

"Brilliant," Feolan trilled. "We had Phil locked up!"

Kyoshi blinked. "It's been…interesting."

"I ALMOST DIED THREE TIMES!" Phil screamed, swollen with pride. "IT WAS _GREAT_!"

"THAT'S AWESOME, MAN!" Jeffery yelled back in the same voice as Phil. "TELL ME ABOUT IT!"

"OKAY! WELL, FIRST, I ALMOST GOT DISSECTED, AND THEN-"

Phil's voice died down as the two _crazy_ family members exchanged stories, and the other dunces huddled together on the far side of the beach.

"Alright, this is the play. First, Kyoshi punts the ball to Ellen, and then I grab it and Charles tackles anyone who gets in my way. Is that clear?"

"Feolan," Kyoshi sighed, "this isn't football. We're discussing a way to coax _Crazy _Uncle Jeffery to take us to Cinnabar."

"Fo sho'?" asked Feolan idiotically. "I thought we were talking about nachos!"

Charles turned to the Mightyena with a dead serious expression. "Feolan, I need to ask you something important. When you were little, did you ever- oh, I don't know…wander into a house and eat some of the 'wall-candy' on the walls? Because just to tell you, it's not really candy. Its lead paint which can lead to brain poisoning, so I just assumed that you might o-"

Feolan whacked him on the back of the head. "Shut up."

Meanwhile, Phil was coming to the end of his narrative. "-AND VIOLA FELL OFF THE BALCONY, BUT I HUNG ON, AND THEN I EVOLVED! IT SORT OF HURT. AND NOW WE'RE HERE! SO- Hey…why are you guys huddled around each other?"

"No reason," Ellen said, the group quickly splitting up.

Phil frowned and furrowed his non-existent eyebrows. "Is this some weird idea? Like getting my _Crazy_ Uncle Jeffery to take us to Cinnabar or something?"

There was silence for a couple of seconds, and the only noise that could be heard was the Sharpedo giggling hysterically as it shredded the final bits of the Surfer Dude's swim shorts. Kyoshi finally nodded.

"Well eat some corn on the cob and call me Sally; I'll do it, by jove!" The Gyarados cried in his goofy sort of way, displaying a grin of rotten teeth.

"Are you sure _Crazy_ Uncle Jeffery?" Phil asked his _crazy_ uncle, patting him on the side. "Remember your seizures…"

On cue, the Gyarados suddenly started to jerk and spaz wildly, flailing around the beach, destroying anything in his path. He stopped suddenly, took a deep breath, and said cheerfully to the group, "Sorry about that. That's called a seizure. You get them when you're _old_!"

"And _crazy_! Old and _crazy_!" Phil added, clapping his fins and dancing around. "Now come on, what are we waiting for? _Crazy_ Uncle Jeffery doesn't bite! Much…" he trailed off the last word and hopped on the Gyarados's back. The rest shrugged at each other and followed.

Once they had all boarded, they swam off to Cinnabar, bellowing salty songs about the high seas as they went.

OoO

_Crazy_ Uncle Jeffery floated into the Cinnabar port, depositing his visitors off his back. He saluted Ellen and Co. "Have a good time in Cinnabar, me mates! Watch out for pirates, though!"

"Argh," Charles agreed, developing a salty accent. "_We_ be pirates, plundering our booty!"

"LET'S DRINK SOME RUM!" Feolan screamed, waving an empty bottle of alcohol around drunkenly.

Ellen put an eye patch over her left eye. "Aye. Yo ho, blow the man down! We be goin' oot and aboot on this island, eh?"

"Ellen, you're getting Canadian accents confused with Pirate accents," Kyoshi sighed, as Phil waved tearfully goodbye to his _Crazy_ Uncle.

"Go to hell," the Anti-Trainer spat, and bounded forward to look at her surroundings.

Cinnabar, in essence, was a tourist trap. Sure, it was a tropical island and all, not to mention the great weather, clear skies and tropical waters, but it was just _crawling_ with fat, old people in Hawaiian print shirts and little children screaming their heads off.

It was a dangerous area, full of scary people, not to mention crawling with huge, bloodthirsty Yanma, just waiting to pray on an innocent baby or child or teen or adult or elder or Pokémon or alien or salesperson or gym leader or realtor or doctor or lawyer or superhero or writer or apple or can of beans or toilet or doorknob or cat or picture frame or computer or lamp or- Feolan the Wiseass, because he shouldn't be considered as Pokémon at all.

He's that dumb.

"DUCK!" the Mightyena screamed, throwing himself out of the way of the huge, fanged bug. The Yanma cackled and started buzzing around wildly, a red blur, before running into a tree and promptly fainting. Feolan was plastered against the Cinnabar Gym door, his claws scratching against the steel.

"Wow," Charles said, clapping his claws together slowly, "Bra-_vo_. I wanna see that again. Except with Feolan getting bitten. Now _that_ would have been funny."

Feolan stuck his tongue out at the Charizard. "Jealous!" He pried himself from the door and beat on it with his paw. "That's funny. The door is locked."

"To bad! Let's break it down!" Ellen declared, and without further warning, marched up to the door and kicked it. Basically every bone it her leg crumbled to tiny, bite-sized pieces, but healed again because that would _really_ get in the way of the story.

Once she was healed, Ellen threw her hands you in the air and rejoiced. "IT'S A MIRACLE! I'M BETTER AGAIN!"

Phil grinned. "Hallelujah! Now all we need is a miracle to open the door for us!" He looked up in the air. "Come on, Great and Holy Mew, give us a miracle or somethin'!"

Kyoshi patted Phil on the back sympathetically. "Considering the way we curse, I don't think Mew will do anything for us soon. Unless something incrediably odd happens."

There was quiet for a moment. "Right..." Ellen said, before Feolan randomly interupted her.

"Start prayin', sister," Charles declared. "You're one of the most obnoxious people I've ever met. Besides Feolan, of course."

"ROCK, ROCK ON!" Feolan screamed, suddenly realizing that there was a note on the locked Gym door. "Hey guys, check this out. A note!"

Phil held his expression like the little kid from 'Home Alone.' "Look on the back! There's a letter!"

True to the Marshomp's words, there was a fat, red B on the back of the note. But enough puns. Feolan handed the note over to Ellen for her to read.

"_Dear Trainers_," the Anti-Trainer read, and then frowned. "Hey! What about Anti-Trainers?"

"Give me that!" Charles snatched the paper from her and thanked Mew he had been one of the 'nerdy Charmanders.' "_-And Anti-Trainers."_

Ellen grinned sheepishly.

"_Since I'm a creepy, old Gollum-esque Gym Leader with a strange fetish for riddles and Fire Pokémon, I've decided to lock my Gym doors and hide the key in the old Pokémon Mansion located to your lower right. Have fun, and oh! Watch out for rabid Raticate; you know how much they love biting off the heads of innocent young people. Can't have too many people getting into my Gym, now can we? Well, have fun! From, Blaine…my precious…MY PRECIOUS!_"

"You didn't have to add the ending," Kyoshi mumbled, rolling her eyes.

"I'm didn't," Charles giggled, "he actually wrote 'my Precious' in there. So we're basically up against a humanoid Gollum."

Feolan conjured up a huge frown. "So…we need THE ONE KEY TO RULE THEM ALL, HUH?"

The Cinnabar Gym door suddenly flew open and a small, shrimpy nerd suddenly burst out of the gym, looked around, and hissed at the group. You could say they were frightened.

"WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM, MAN?" Ellen screamed at the hissing nerd, while Charles sucked his thumb.

Nerd rubbed his hands together. "Sssssss! The nasty little trainersers sssshall not get the precioussssss…the precioussss!" He paused to roll his eyeballs around in their sockets. "Sssss…the preciousssss…the preciousssss…Ompa Lumpas! OMPA LUMPAS! _OMPA LUMPASSSSSSS_!"

Then he spontaneously combusted.

Feolan was shaking. "E- Ellen…I'm scared. Maybe we should get in the mansion soon…"

"Damn straight," the girl said, and they all walked in.

The Pokémon Mansion was very, very big. And dusty. And quite stereotypical. There were cobwebs hanging from the walls, old, peeling wallpaper, and creepy Abra statues everywhere. All that was needed was a huge picture of some old guy with eyes that followed you around.

As the door creaked shut, the group examined an Abra statue. The statue was incredibly ornate, complete with gold accents, a large red button in the middle, and a price tag on its side that said: _TOM'S DOLLAR STORE_.

"Figures," Ellen muttered, and pressed the red button.

There was a huge clattering noise and from across the room a huge, gray garage door opened up revealing a…bright red Porsche?

HA! Fooled you. Nope, not today there ain't gonna be no Porsches. But there _was_ a long stairway leading up into the mansion.

Ellen dissolved into tears and repeatedly beat her head on a crumbling wall. "I thought I was finally gonna get a Porsche! Noooooo! My life is ruined! There's no point in living anymore! I might as well just hop of a cliff! Holy shit…"

Before further harm could come to the dysfunctional Anti-Trainer, Charles told her to get a life, pulled her away from the wall, and gave her a huge noogie which knocked some sense into her. The group then continued on up the stairs, avoiding any burglars that got in their way and pressing every single statue-button they could find.

Feolan pointed at something and wagged his long tail. "Hey guys! I'm gonna press _that_ button," he giggled, and ran over.

Kyoshi looked momentarily surprised as Feolan bounded over to the 'button.' "Feolan, that's not a button, that's a-"

Just as the Mightyena was about to push the 'button,' he realized that it wasn't a button but actually a large, chainsaw wielding man in a Speedo; and took of screaming down a hallway.

"-maniac in a Speedo," Kyoshi finished dully, watching her teammate scream like a little girly. The Maniac in a Speedo realized there was another group watching him and began to lumber towards them. "Um, I suggest we leave now."

"Why? We're perfectly safe here," Charles said, looking around jovially. He smiled and clasped his claws together. "It's actually quite nice here."

"There's a Maniac in a Speedo advancing on us," Kyoshi implied, a tad bit of stress in her voice. "That's _bad_."

Ellen rolled her eyes and made a small 'pftt' noise. "Kyoshi, you're seeing things. All I see is a moving statue-button coming towards us. And I know _all about_ moving statue-buttons. They're nature's gentlest creatures."

The Persian finally blew it and grabbed their ears, screaming, "_THAT'S NOT A BUTTON! THAT'S A MANIAC IN A SPEEDO_!"

"Hot damn!" The Anti-Trainer's eyes widened and she finally understood what Kyoshi was screaming about. "It really is a Maniac! HEAD FOR THE HILLS!" She sprinted after Feolan and the rest of them followed, waving their arms with fright.

Sooner or later, (which ever you like better), they all met up again in front of a huge hole in the ground, blocking their way. When Feolan peaked through it, he gasped.

"What's in there?" Charles asked worriedly, fidgeting his tail in his claws. "Rabid Chansey? Delusional Breloom? The tension is killing me!"

"Just a Persian," Feolan replied, leaning farther down into the hole with interest. "It's okay. No danger here. Come on, we can all jump down! It's not that far."

"But…jumping scares me!" Phil whined.

Ellen grinned evilly. "Then you'll be the first one to go down!" With that, she booted the Marshtomp down the hole and he landed with an 'OMPH!' The rest of the group followed and fell in front of the Persian.

If the Persian was startled by their arrival, he showed no emotion. He simply sat slumped again a wall, a giant carton of chocolate ice-cream held in the rook of his arm. His muzzle was covered in ice-cream, and the Pokémon looked like he hadn't slept in days.

The Persian looked up at them and frowned. "Whatdya want?" he growled in a deep, sexy voice despite obvious depression.

Ellen and Kyoshi's eyes widened and they both pointed at him simultaneously. "I- I know who you are!" Kyoshi gasped, glaring. "Y-You're Giovanni's Persian!"

"Yeah," the Anti-Trainer sputtered, "and you tried to hit on Kyoshi back in the Game Corner. Uh…and…_AND YOU'RE GIOVANNI'S PERSIAN_!"

"Was…" he trailed off, spooning a huge glob of ice-cream into his mouth. He moaned. "Now I'm a nothing. Now I'm a nobody. Boss _disowned_ me. No more treats. No more bossing people around. No more _anything_. Care to hear my sob story?"

"Care to see my _fist_?" Ellen shook her fist at him and took a step forward, but the Pokémon just brushed the comment off.

Persian rolled his eyes. "Oh please. Anti-Trainers are such nerds. I've heard better comebacks from dead bodies."

"Yeah? Well I've seen better ice cream from…Ben and Jerry's!"

The Classy Cat showed her the carton. "This _is_ Ben and Jerry's, idiot."

Ellen pointed at him. "YOU MAY HAVE DEFEATED ME THIS TIME, BUT-"

"You're right, she is an idiot," Charles mumbled, quieting Ellen. "Now come on, tell us your sob story."

Persian stroked his whiskers. "I don't know…you're that Charizard who messed everything up for us at Silph Co…" He glanced at him and finally shrugged. "But I'm neutral now. So I guess its okay. Well…" he cleared his throat and set his ice cream down beside him, adapting a tearful, cracked voice.

"Sometimes it gets pretty boring living the rich life, you know? No, I'm sorry; you don't, because you're a stupid Anti-Trainer. Sure, my Boss's- I mean, _former_ Boss's Pokémon get everything they want, but we're just bored usually. So we do some crazy things, right? You do some crazy things when you're bored, right? Right? I'M WAITNG FOR YOU TO ANSWER ME." The Persian whacked Ellen on the back of the head.

The Anti-Trainer woke up from her slumber and rubbed her eyes, zipping to attention. "Uhmm…ah…mmm…OH RIGHT, YEAH! I DO CRAZY THINGS WHEN I'M BORED!'

"Good. I'm glad people understand me; it makes me feel a lot better. Now, Boss was away from awhile, maybe for a couple of minutes when he heard that Mew had escaped his prison-"

"Team Rocket got Mew? And then it escaped?" Ellen was fully awake now. "How'd that ha-"

Persian waggled a claw at her and helped himself to more ice-cream. "Questions after the story, children. And in this case, no more asking about Mew. So, Boss went away and his Pokémon were alone together. Me, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Dugtrio, Aerodactyl, and Rhydon, and let me tell you- we didn't mix well. We all _hated_ each other, save Nidoking and Nidoqueen. I mean, we were always fighting for Top Cat, if you know what I mean…" he winked at them. "Me and Rhydon were always at it."

"I pity you," Kyoshi mumbled sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"Hey hottie, don't be hatin'," he said in the same sarcastic tone, "you just need to get to know me. _Anywayyyy_, once my dear Boss was gone, Dugtrio, that little sicko, started _chewing dirt_. You know how Pokémon have these little habits? Like Duggie. Duggie like to chew dirt. No- not chew. _Snarf_. So, I'm sitting down that evening and I'm _really_ tired and I'm looking for a little bit of sympathy; and there's Duggie, sitting on the ground, giggling like an idiot and chewing. No, not chewing. SNARFING! So I said to Duggie; 'you snarf that dirt one…more…time…!'" The Pokémon sighed sadly and looked off into the distance. "And Duggie did. So, I took Boss's handgun off the desk and I fired two warning shots. Into…Duggie's…_head_."

"Holy shit, man," Ellen yelled, raising her eyebrows with genuine shock. Her expression slowly grimaced. "You're as whacked as Giovanni!"

"Uh, I prefer to call him 'Boss'."

The Anti-Trainer became cocky and yelled, "Yeah? I prefer to call him 'shitty sonuvabitch!"

His eyes widened and ate a glob of chocolate for reassurance. "Oh wow," he said between mouthfuls, "Boy, are you one hell of an ass! That's a pity. Guess you hate Boss so much that I can't tell you the rest of my story…"

"Don't pay any attention to the deranged Anti-Trainer over there," Feolan said quickly, earning a glare from Ellen. "She doesn't know what she's talking about."

"Yeah…you're right. She doesn't."

"So tell us," he prompted again.

"Well…I don't know…" he shrugged. "Alright. I'm a neutral, got to remember that. No more Anti-Trainer hatin' for me. Okay. I surrender. So, Duggie is dead and all the Pokémon are staring at me like I'm crazy. But I'm not, I'm just misguided. And Aerodactyl says something, but I don't know what it was. She probably congratulated me or something- she and I were on good terms."

"But when I was just about to hide the 'smoking gun,' the door opens. Boss storms in, looking furious." He shook his head, closed his eyes and sighed. Phil giggled and consumed half of his ice-cream.

"And I got caught," Persian finally choked out. "I got caught with the gun. Mew knows how I even knew how to use the thing. Boss was mad. Infuriated. I mean, I'm surprised he didn't sic Rhydon on me or something. But, I got kicked out onto the street."

"And you came here after wandering around a while, right?" finished Charles rubbing his muzzle thoughtfully. "And now this is you're home. Now tell us about Mew."

He nodded. His lip shook and ignored Charles's plea. "Actually, it's my rehab center. I'm going through major depression, so I just sit here all day, eat ice-cream, stare at this shiny key and hope I get better." With that, Persian produced a large, red key from behind the ice-cream carton. He stared at it longingly. "SO…SHINY!"

"Shiny…" Kyoshi said, instantly transfixed by it. She stumbled forward.

"Shiny," Persian said dreamily.

"Shiny…" she said again.

"Will you marry me…?" Persian asked Kyoshi, still hypnotized.

Kyoshi's eyes rolled back. "Let's have lots of little Meowths…"

Finally realizing what was happening, Ellen snatched the key away from the two of them, and they both snapped out of their mesmerized state.

"Hey!" Persian whisked the key away from her and furrowed his face into a glare. "I knew I shouldn't have trusted you, you…Anti-Trainer! No! Wait! I'm neutral now!" He clutched his head in his paws. "New…TRAL! Neutral! I don't _care_ about Anti-Trainers anymore!"

"Hey best frickin' friend in the whole frickin' region," Feolan said gruffly, "while you're all crazy, can you tell us about Mew now? _And_ can we have the damn key? It's for the Gym."

"GYM?" the Classy Cat boomed, ignoring the Mightyena. "No one told me there was a Gym here! Oh well, I don't care. So, you want the key…" he dangled it in front of Ellen's face and smirked. "I'll give you it…but you have to do something for me first."

Kyoshi interrupted the two of them. "No Persian, I will _not_ be your girlfriend or accept to any of your perverted wishes," she said forcefully, stomping her paw on the ground. "You'll have to choose something else."

"Darn." Persian snapped his paw, even though I don't really know how a paw can snap. "Well then, I have a Plan B. If you want this key, the Anti-Trainer needs to say…" he leaned over and whispered something in the Ellen's ear, chuckling. A look of shock spread over her face, "…sixteen times."

"NO WAY!" Ellen yelled, stumbling away from him. "That's _SICK_, you asshole!"

The Pokémon cackled. "Silent revenge on the boss!"

"Aww, come on, say it!" Phil gave her puppy-dog eyes. "Pweese?"

"Are you kidding? Did you hear what that shit-face said?"

"Say it," Feolan chanted, beating his paws on the ground. Ellen's Pokémon made a little circle and started chanting: 'SAY IT. SAY IT. SAY IT. SAY IT. SAY IT. SAY IT. SAY IT. SAY IT. _SAY IT_!"

"Arghh…ALRIGHT!"

The Pokémon stopped chanting and let off a rowdy cheer as they all got comfortable and waiting for her to say the phrase. Tension was high. Persian was gobbling down ice-cream like mad and trying to put an arm around Kyoshi all at the same time. Feolan, Charles, and Phil clutched each other with suspense that they almost spontaneously combusted. Ellen glanced around nervously, shut her eyes, opened her mouth and said loudly,

"-

OoO

"I feel like I need to take fifteen-billion showers after saying that," the Anti-Trainer groaned, fingering the key she had just earned. The group went out the front door of the mansion and was standing in the fading sunlight. "That was the shittyest thing I've ever said."

"I think that was a bit to adult for even _you_ to say," Charles confessed, furrowing his brow. "Especially in the…uh…ahem…_context_…ahem…of it."

Feolan chuckled. "I thought that was hilfreakinarious. That Persian has a sick, sick brain."

"So much for 'neutral'," Kyoshi muttered angrily, curling up the paw she had smacked the Persian with after Ellen's 'little speech.'

"Hey Charles," Phil asked, tugging on his tail, "what's a-"

Charles, thinking quick, grabbed the key from Ellen and held it aloft. "AT LEAST WE GOT THE KEY! NOW WE CAN GO TO THE GYM!"

"But Charles, is that a verb or a noun? I'm confused…! And what does-"

"Time to go to the Gym!" The Charizard lead the group away, Phil still asking inappropriate questions and Ellen still asking for a shower. From a window in the Cinnabar Mansion, Persian chuckled as he watched them walk off.

"Mmhhmm," he laughed quietly, "revenge! Revenge is a Persian's only friend! Now I don't feel so depressed." He sauntered away from the window and jumped up the stairs of the mansion silently.

'Now that's I'm cured," he though slowly, 'I _could_ go get a life, but I like it better with the ice-cream. And I don't have anything to worry about with my position as Top Cat gone. After all, now that Rhydon is Boss's favorite, he'll probably gain, like, four-thousand pounds and eventually explode. And then Boss'll come crying back to me. Heehee! I'm so smart. I'm a genius.'

And with that, he turned around and walked straight into a hole in the floor.

"Ow…my spinal cord…"

OoO

AHAHAHA! I put Giovanni's depressed Persian in the chapter! I dunno, I thought his personality was pretty funny for a pampered cat. He's a very cynical, fast-talking cat. Not to mention perverted.

And you know what? I bet at least one of the readers thought this was gonna be a serious chapter, just because of the title! Yeah! That's how smart I am! Yeah! I'm a freakin' geniu-"

(Falls off a cliff)

So next chapter, Ellen and Co.'ll be battling Blaine for the…what is it? Fire Badge? Let's check…ah! Volcano Badge. Sweet. Oh yeah, and an unexpected visitor arrives on the island…except you probably know who it is…

I HOPE.

This is Flameboo, signing off.


	32. Peace, Love, and Granola

Whuz up my homies? Well, nothing much to say about this chapter beforehand, so…ya. REVIEW!

OoO

Fiery Sapphire 32

Peace, Love, and Granola

Blaine the Pyromaniac was peering from his gym in horror at a rather gawky, tough-looking teenager surrounded by a few assorted Pokémon. This was absurd. No one, and I mean _no one_ ever got the Gym Key that fast. It was impossible. In fact, a very few amount of people had ever found the darn thing. That's why it was so hard to get to Indigo Plateau. With the Fire Gym and the Last Gym combined, you practically had to _kill_ yourself to get there.

Or…something like that.

The Gym Leader faltered and pressed his forehead against the window. Now what was that infernal girl doing? And what's this…? The Charizard is slowly reaching his claw over to the ghastly-pale Mightyena and…what is he doing? That Mightyena looks like he's in pain! Horrid pain! What is this? WHAT'S HAPPENING?

Oh. The group is laughing. The Charizard gave his teammate what young people call a 'noogie'. Hmm. Blaine chuckled good-naturally and adjusted the strap on his tinted glasses. "Noogie. What a funny word. Simply adorable."

Blaine's Gollum act would usually scare away any younger trainers who were, undoubtedly, much too young to endure what came after his gym, but the older, more experienced trainers would simply scoff it off. Pity.

"Now…back to the new trainer…" he hummed himself a little tune called _Burning Down the House_ and looked once again out the one-way window. The trainer was gone. Ah well, it didn't really matter. He didn't like fighting that much, anyway. He laughed again in reminiscence. "Ah, noogie. I just can't get over that word. It's fun to say, too. Noogie, noogie, noogie, noogie, noogie, noogie, noogie!" He giggled. So fun! "Noogie, noogie, noogie, noogie, noogie, noogie, noogie, noogie, noogie, noogie, noogie, noogie, noogie, noog-"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" an obnoxious voice called out from nowhere.

Blaine jumped backwards, staring blindly at the figure in front of him, who was undoubtedly Ellen.

"YOU!" he boomed randomly, pointing a finger at her. "You're that _girl_!"

Ellen frowned at him. "No, I'm a _man_. Of course I'm a freakin' _girl_! What now? Does, like, everyone hate me? I mean, I can show you this list of my friends, enemies, family, enemies, and more enemies! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?" she accused, shaking her fist at him.

"Ellen, maybe people have a very good reason to hate you," Kyoshi commented slowly, tracing her paw on the floor, "you've never asked them, now have you?"

"No," she grumbled. "But how am I supposed to _ask_ them when-"

Blaine suddenly interrupted their discussion. "I'm sorry, but am I missing something? I don't have any idea as to why you're conversing with your Pokémon. Now, am I right that you came for a battle?"

The Anti-Trainer brightened suddenly. "Yup! Only two more badges to go before the League!"

"I heartily applaud your efforts," Blaine drawled sarcastically, clapping. "I trust you're ready for the fight _tout de suite_?"

Charles wiggled his non-existent eyebrows knowingly. "Ah, _le French_! I myself am an expert. Observe-" he cleared his throat noisily as Blaine looked on. "Je crois que votre mère était un poisson et votre père a été fait en merde de cheval. Vous, monsieur, êtes extrêmement et tout à fait chauve, et j'ai plaisir la fabrication de l'amusement de votre manteau et verres de laboratoire. Je peux me voir dans votre tête ronde brillante. Je suis si beau."

"Why is that Charizard roaring and growling in what remotely sounds like some demented version of French?" the Gym Leader asked.

"I dunno," Feolan answered, snickering, "but man, are you _BALD_!" He collapsed into hysterics.

"And why is that strange, white Mightyena laughing at me?" the Gym Leader sputtered, growing more agitated by the second. He sighed and began to calm down, removing the glasses from the bridge of his nose and silently cleaning them off. "I trust you know what Pokémon you'll use first?"

"Phil," Ellen said.

"Phil."

"Phil."

"Phil."

"I guess I can go first…" Phil said quietly, speaking up for the first time in a while. "I mean, it won't be _that_ hard, now that I'm evolved and all, and I think ever since the two incidents with Viola and _Crazy_ Uncle Jeremy I've grown a bit more every day, ya know? Because I think that I can rea- HOLY SWEET LUGIA, WHAT THE HECK IS THAT."

As Phil was rambling on, he hadn't noticed that the rest of the group had backed up and Blaine had sent out his first Pokémon, a huge Arcanine which was slobbering and growling at nothing in particular.

Positioning herself into what she called; 'the asshole Trainer pose;' Ellen called to the Marshtomp, "Phil! Use Mud Slap!"

"I don't know Mud Slap!" he wailed at her. "All I know is Water Gun, Muddy Water, Surf, and other water-related attacks that are perfect for destroying Fire-types!"

"WE'RE SCREWED!" Feolan bellowed, Blaine grinning. "TOTALLY SCROOOOOODDDD!"

The Arcanine bounded towards Phil and choked up a burst of flame at him, which the Marshtomp avoided, save a few minor burns on the back of his head. Phil countered with a measly little tackle; throwing himself at the dog but bouncing off of it like a rubber ball.

Charles was practically tearing the two protruding bones from his head, which sounded quite gross. "No Phil, no! Do something else!"

The Marshtomp skipped daintily up to the snarling Arcanine and whipped him softly with his fin-like tail. Nothing happened, and the Pokémon grabbed Phil in his mouth and flung him across the room.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-" Phil was still screaming as he hit the wall and thudded to the ground gently, his rubber-like scales softening the blow. He was still screaming, his mouth a huge O lined with small, sharp teeth, even as he got up and walked over to the Arcanine, giving it a pathetic kick to the front paw. Blaine commanded him to execute another attack.

"Might I give you a piece of information?" the Gym Leader questioned pleasantly, knowing he was up against a bunch of idiots. Arcanine sent another blast of flame at Phil. "Why not have your Marshtomp use a water attack?"

"You're crazy," Ellen scoffed at him, and directed her attention at Phil. "Dude, just bite his head off."

The Marshtomp stared at her a bit. He took a long, slow blink.

And then he did.

Phil twitched a bit before flinging himself at the poor Arcanine, and suddenly the Fire-Dog was headless and Phil burped, content. "Yummy, yummy, yummy," he sang, rolling around on the floor.

Everyone was staring at him, as usual. The Anti-Trainer finally spoke up and turned to Blaine, who was currently going through some sort of spastic withdraw.

"I was just kidding. I didn't really _want_ 'em to bite his head off. Sure, he's done stuff like that a few other times, but I didn't think he could actually eat his head. So, sorry dude, but looks like you'll have to get over it."

"Get. Over. It?" Blaine whispered, pointing a shaking finger at Phil. Ellen shrugged. "That infernal Marshtomp just murdered practically my _only_ friend, and you tell me to '_get over it_?'" He mimicked her voice with an unnaturally feminine tone. "I tell you, this is _certainly_ not legal in any sort of Pokémon battle! For Mew's sake, I don't even know _what_ to do when this occurs!"

"If you give us the badge we'll leave really quickly," Ellen suggested.

Blaine frowned. "No."

"We'll hit Phil twenty-seven times!" Feolan told him, and began to whack the small animal over and over again against the head. Needless to say; Blaine quite enjoyed that, and after it was done, he happily complied. Turns out it wasn't that hard to bribe the Pyro.

After he had given them the badge, Ellen asked: "So Blaine…now that we totally pawned you, d'you think we're ready for the Last Gym?"

The Gym Leader stared at her for a while before erupting into laughter. "Girl, biting off another Pokémon's head is no way to win a Gym battle! You need skill!"

"Eating people's heads is skills," Phil whined, frowning. "You're just jealous!"

"So no biting off heads?" the Anti-Trainer said.

Blaine started laughing again and put a comforting hand on Ellen's shoulder. "AHAHA! In the last Gym Battle, _you_ might get _your_ own head bitten off! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Ellen looked around awkwardly and stifled a pathetic laugh. "Ahahaha…ha…ha…ahhh…uhhh…that's not funny…"

"Well it is to me!" And with that, he ushered them out of his Gym and onto the windy Cinnabar beach.

"You know, that was actually quite an easy battle," Kyoshi said brightly, smiling. "For once, I feel optimistic!"

"Me too!" Phil agreed, and then frowned. "No. Wait. I've always been optimistic."

Getting back to the point, Feolan asked: "So where's the last Gym?"

They all slowly looked at each other and shrugged. Unless there was a secret Gym, they'd beaten every single one...

"VIRIDIAN!" Ellen burst out suddenly, throwing out her arms. Her team stared at her, taken aback. "Charles? Remember when you took me to that old Gym when we first left Pallet Town? You picked the lock with your claw and we stayed over night there when it was raining. Remember? _That_ must be the last Gym!"

Charles furrowed his non-existent eyebrows and blinked at Ellen thoughtfully. He nodded and broke out into a pleasant smile. "I was just a little Charmander back then. But wow, was I crafty! I can't believe we actually did that…" he trailed off. "But you're right. I have a sneaking suspicion that's the last Gym. So what are we waiting for?"

Feolan grinned. "Let's all board the S.S Charles and-"

"GET YOUR _ASS_ OUTA HERE!"

The group turned to see where the furious yell had come from, and set their eyes on two men. One, obviously a Cinnabar native with a golden tan and sunglasses, was arguing with a tall, lean pale man who was obviously frightened out of his wits.

"Oh, well, I'm terribly sorry, but…er…this…this boat will only be here for a short period of time, you see…" the paler man spoke with a slight British accent, not overdrawn but still noticeable- and very familiar to Ellen and Co.

"Hey, I know that English guy," Ellen said to no one in particular. "But…I just can't think of where I met him…"

Feolan suddenly jumped. "HOLY SHIT! I KNOW HIM TOO! IT'S _NAKED MAN_!"

All the Pokémon exchanged insane glances and ran over to the man, screaming, 'NAKED MAN! NAKED MAN! WE MISSED YOU, NAKED MAN!'

Ellen rolled her eyes and walked over. Now that they had said, 'Naked Man,' she knew the man was obviously Bill who she had first met as an Eevee. After some crazy experiment, Bill had poofed himself into an Eevee, but when Ellen helped him transform back…well…let's just say he was devoid of clothes.

So…the name stuck.

Bill looked positively terrified as the Pokémon danced around him chanting their embarrassing little song, and the Cinnabarian man shrugged and casually walked away. Feolan started chewing on Bill's shoe.

After Ellen calmed the Pokémon down, Bill sighed with relief and looked up to thank whoever had stopped them, but instead a look of shock spread across his face.

"ELLEN!" he cried happily, thin face breaking into a huge grin. He rubbed his hands together. "Wow! Surprise meeting _you_ of all people here! So, how've you been? You look-" his grin flickered as he looked Ellen over, "er…very bruised…and…" he shook his head. "Well, you look thinner, I'll say! Wow, this is great! I've so much to tell you."

"Me too!"

He nodded. "Myes…myes…well, since I found you here you _must_ be collecting badges, eh? Let's see…last badge, you say? Splendid! Then I trust you can take some time off of your adventure for a bit of vacationing?"

"Fuh?" the Anti-Trainer asked dully. "I'm going on vacation?"

He laughed softly. "Well, not really," Bill explained, nodding his head at the small liner. "I was out helping my friend on Knot Island and stopped here for a rest. That's my boat. Apparently the natives weren't so happy with me parking on their beach, but- eh!" he shrugged. "It would be rude not to invite you down to the island. Want to come?"

"Hell yeah!" she exclaimed haughtily jumping on the boat. It teetered a bit in the water. "Sun, sand, ocean, cool drinks- I'm there!"

Feolan flattened his ears back against his head. "This better not to boring, Bill, 'cuz if it is, I'm gonna be _so_ up in your grillz!"

Bill smiled and cocked his head at Feolan. "Oh, don't worry. Knot Island is bound to be fun," he exclaimed giddily, marching towards the Pokémart. "And I don't _have_ grillz."

Ellen popped up and almost crashed her head against the small roof of the boat. Did he just…? _Answer _Feolan?

Bill stopped suddenly and turned around, realizing that Ellen and Co. were staring at him. A sheepish smile was plastered to him. "Oh…I suppose I'll have to tell you about _that_, too! Well, all in good time, all in good time. I'll just be at the Pokémart, getting a few snacks for along the way. Do you like Twinkies? What about Potato Chips? Ah, I do enjoy Cheese-its…"

And the Pokémaniac's voice drifted off, as the group boarded the boat and began a strange chain of events that would slowly but eventually end their long journey.

OoO

In response to the dense storm clouds gathering over Kanto, a rough wave crashed against the side of the boat, forcing Bill to grope at the edge of the boat as they cast off. The man was an expert boatman and could even leave the wheel for a while to chat with Ellen, but because of the storm he had to take cautious measures and stick to the wheel.

And Ellen didn't really care for the 'chatting' thing.

Despite the unseemly warm temperatures of the Fuchsia and Cinnabar beaches, winter was coming fast that year. Even in early October the Uraring were beginning to hibernate.

"How's the water, Kyoshi?" Charles asked, making himself comfortable on a small yet nice chair.

"Cold," the Persian's lower half said, as her upper half was dangling over the side of the boat and batting at the school of Magicarp in the water. "It's icy."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Bill answered knowingly, leaning over to her. "We're going to be sailing near the Seafoam Islands. Coldest place in Kanto."

Ellen snorted and continued to smash the buttons on her beaten, scratched DS. "Dude, you still haven't told us how you started talking to Pokémon." She had forgotten that she'd packed the DS, (I mean, with all that she'd gotten into, when did she have time to use it,) and with all the rough and tumble of her journey, it had gotten quite worn.

"Ah yes. Quite. Well, after you turned me back into a human I realized that the effects of me being able to understand Pokémon wore off. But after a day or so the ability came back…and another one with it…" he grimaced. "Not a very _pleasant_ one, either."

"Tell us what it is, PLLLEEEAAAASSSSEEEE?" Phil screamed, jumping onto him. Bill let out a good-natured laugh.

"All in good time, all in good time," the Pokémaniac said slowly, prying Phil off of him. "But right now, Ellen…" he directed his attention towards the Anti-Trainer. "From the looks of you, it looks like you've had yourself an exciting journey."

"D'you want me to tell you about it?"

He shrugged and smiled brightly. "Whatever floats you're boat. Hehe. But I _would_ enjoy hearing about it."

"From the beginning?"

"Of course."

"Promise you won't tell anyone?"

"Emm-hmm."

"Well…alright then…"

OoO

"Mirror B…Mirror B…Hello…? Mirror B?" Troy's adapted quite a patient voice as she tried to communicate with the notoriously stupid executive. "Mirror B, shouldn't you be getting some work done?"

The disco man slapped his funky green and blue desk and stood up, bobbing his head. He admired his new office and then said, "Groovy Girl, I already _got_ my work done! I'm like a Worka-City, chicky! Can you dig it?"

"Please don't call me chicky," Troy said flatly.

"See? Here's my FUNKY-FRESH WORK!" The man grabbed something from his desk and shoved a crumpled up piece of paper in the woman's face. On closer inspection, the paper had a huge, red smiley face on it. "It'll _TOTALLY_ help Team Rocket totally pawn those Anti-Grits!"

"Did you just call…?" she let her sentence tail off and shook her head. "Listen, you really need to improve your work ethnics. With Mew…" he made the quotations with her fingers, "'_mysteriously_' gone, we're in a bit of deep shit."

"It's casual, it's casual," Mirror B. said, trying to reassure Troy. "Mew is in the past, Foxy Mama. You and the totally juicer Boss-Man can chill."

She sighed. Imagine being consoled by Mirror B.! "I suppose…it's not as important as our usual missions. It was more of a break for reality, you know?"

"Hon, I _am_ a break from reality. I know whatcha mean."

"And Gi-Gi will forget about it, right?"

"Totally."

She brightened. "Then maybe we can take a break from this hectic lifestyle of ours! Thanks, Mirror B!"

Suddenly a cell phone rang, and Troy quickly picked up. She grimaced and rolled her eyes exaggeratedly at the disco man. He snickered. "Yes, yes, yes sweetie," she cooed into the phone, "You want to try and find him? But Gi-Gi, Mew is already in the Berry Forrest…sure? Positive? Fine. I'll be right over, love."

Troy packed up her things quickly and quietly. "Got to go. Muffins is-"

"SAY WHAT?" Mirror B. shrieked, taking off his huge sunglasses and peering at her. His afro went lop-sided a bit. "_Muffins_?"

"Ah…Boss. I mean, Boss. Right. Got to go, anyway. Thanks for your time."

Mirror B. nodded solemnly as she walked out. "Peace, Love, and Granola, chicky," he said as a good-bye. "Peace, Love, and Granola."

When Troy entered Giovanni's room, the Boss was sitting in his usual place at his desk, deeply engrossed in a thick book he was reading. An expression of profound concentration was plastered on his face, so much so that he didn't even notice his wife enter.

Now, this was quite a normal scene for Troy, but ever since the faithful escape of Mew, something was very different about Giovanni. Very.

Before Mew a sleek, graceful Persian would slink around the marble floors, sitting near Boss and occasionally even bestowing upon Troy the honor to pet him. She enjoyed the Classy Cat. It was…a normal pet to have. Poised. Attractive. Confident. Much like Giovanni himself.

But this new Pokémon…this…huge Rhydon wasn't like Giovanni at all. Or was it? It towered over his armchair, dragging its armored tail across the floor lazily, pawing and clawing at its gigantic horn. When it saw Troy enter, it looked up with its great black pupils and uttered a sort of growl, as if to say, "Oh. You're here."

Giovanni slowly lowered his book his line of sight and finally snapped it shut. He stared at the woman. "Oh. You're here," he said dully, and tossed the book aside. "Come help me decide who to send to capture Mew."

"Don't you think you should put that thing in its Pokéball?" Troy asked hesitantly, eyeing the Pokémon as she edged up next to her husband. "It a bit too large to stay out."

"Nonsense," he contradicted, taking out his cell phone. "I only kept my favorites in Pokéballs when I was battling. I never kept Persian in a Pokéball for most of the time. Why should I keep Rhydon in one? It would be unjust."

The woman cast him a sideways glance as she pulled up a chair to sit down in. "Well, if you haven't noticed, Gi-Gi, we aren't exactly Pokémon Rights Activists. And you aren't exactly the…nicest person…in Kanto."

Giovanni sighed and placed his hands on his desk. He smiled at Troy and calmly said: "Normally if a Grunt said that I'd have to punish them physically."

Troy winced.

"But," he continued, "because you are my wife…" he placed his hands over hers and squeezed it reassuringly, "and I love you, I certainly forgive you. Plus, I'm feeling particularly nice today."

"Ah. Really? _Moi aussi_."

"_Buon_. But enough of that. How many people should we send into the Berry Forest?"

Troy wrinkled up her nose. "Berry Forest. What a dull name."

"Aptly named, though. Now. How many? Ten? Twenty? Fifty?"

"Don't you think that's a bit too many…members? We'll attract attention. Remember our agreement? Always travel in small packs? Maybe _that's_ why all of our 'big missions' went down the drain. We had all of our members. Might I remind you of Silph Cor-"

Giovanni stared at her with disdain and waved his hand to interrupt. "Of course, of course, fine. You don't need to remind me. Five, then. Five or six. I'm thinking of sending out the Capture Trio."

"Oh, not _those_ idiots," Troy said, rolling her eyes. "Aren't they that group of Neanderthals who can't get _anything_ done?"

"Troy, don't take me for such a simpleton. The Capture Trio is perfectly capable of capturing Mew." He stared at her and pronounced the next line very slowly, "That…is…why…they…are…called…the…Capture…Trio. And besides," he regained his normal tone, "you're confusing them with that threesome. You know, the woman with the obnoxiously pointy hair and outrageously large earrings, the man who particularly enjoyed doing dressing as a woman…the Meowth from the deep city with speech impairment…"

"I'm glad we stuffed them in prison," the woman muttered. "That Jessie was stealing my spotlight. In fact, that whole threesome was stealing _Team Rocket's_ spotlight."

"Let's murder them once they're on probation," Giovanni suggested eagerly.

"Oh yes, how delightful!" his wife squealed, clapping her hands softly.

"Rhydon is in need of a snack, anyway."

She twisted up her mouth in repugnance and peered up at Rhydon. "Disgusting."

"But useful," the Boss objected, making a sick but true point. "Having a carnivorous Pokémon _does _have its advantages. But enough of that. So, I insist that we send out the Capture Trio. But we need two more if we want five. Obviously."

The two villains looked at each other for a moment, before a look of triumph both came over their faces.

"DONOVAN!" Giovanni cried, grinning elatedly.

"ME!" crowded Troy at the very same time.

They looked at each other for a moment, and Giovanni ran his hand over his oily hair. His smile faltered. "Both of you go, then."

"I'm not going with that…that…_TRAITOR_!" Troy fumed suddenly, stomping her heeled-foot down like a discontent child. "He's probably the one who set Mew free!"

"Don't assume such things," he said sternly. "We can't blame Mr. Kyler until we know if he set Mew free or not."

"But we can't just let him go alone to the Berry Forest!" she sputtered.

"Then…accompany him with the Capture Trio."

"YOU KNOW WHAT? I _WILL_!" Troy grinned a bit too manically and placed her hands on her hips. "And I'll protect our Team's title! TO PROTECT THE WORLD FROM DEVISTATION!" With a sweep of her manicured hand, she gestured to the Boss to finish the rest.

He narrowed his eyes and flicked her an annoyed glare.

"Just do it," she grumbled.

"No," he replied grumpily, slouching a bit over his desk. "I detest that motto. And besides, that's not the true motto. Remember? 'All Kanto exists for the glory of Team Rocket?'"

The woman heaved an exaggerated sigh. "Whatev, Gi-Gi! Now tell me, sweets, when do I depart for the Island?"

"As soon as possible, of course. We can't waste anytime!"

"Rrrriigghtt!" she saluted him playfully and stood up, giving Giovanni a departing peck on the cheek. As she was walking out of the room, she began to count on her fingers, listing the things to pack for her trip. "And I'll take my mascara, and my blush, and my foundation and powder and eyelash curler and eye shadow and lipstick and lip gloss and concealer and that cute little dress from Prada and face cream and perfume and-"

The door slammed shut behind her, promptly cutting the girlish voice off. Giovanni rapped his knuckles on the desk before preparing to dial his cell phone and put everything in order. After Troy left, Rhydon looked where she had been sitting and a low rumble escaped it, as if to say, "Humph. Women."

As the phone was dialing, the Boss shook his head slowly.

"Humph. Women," he muttered.

OoO

"Well, we're here!"

The cheery voice of Bill drifted over the heads of the weary travelers, and they all looked up from what they were doing. In front of them wasn't as breath-taking as they had hoped for. It was a small, grassy island with a tidy beach in the front. Rocks were littered in clumps tethering the end of the beach to the grass, and a few houses and a Market stood in the grassy area.

But what was most exciting about Knot Island was its huge Pokémon Center. The massive building was larger than two Gyms combined, and people poured in and out of it like fish, weaving in and out of crowds. Its giant scarlet roof reflected the sun with such intensity than the group had to look away.

"Isn't it great?" the young man sighed, pulling out a rope and tying the boat to a peg in the water. "I just think it's a marvelous that they could actually build something _that_ huge. And Celio gets to work there sometimes. Lucky."

"Celio?" Feolan asked. "Weird name."

"Actually, it's not really his name. I just call him that as a joke."

After Bill paid for the parking fee, the group trudged up the grassy strip of land, closer and closer to the Pokécenter. Apparently Bill was quite famous there, as many people offered their greetings to him and pretended not to notice the strange, glaring teenager beside him who wriggled with impatience.

After many bouts of 'Oh hi, Bill, how _are_ you today?' and 'Bill! What up, man?' they finally avoided the obsessed crowds and slipped into the Pokémon Center, except it had a revolving door so Ellen, Feolan, and Phil had to spin around in it a number of times before getting stuck in perpetual motion, which Kyoshi had to pull them out of with her physic powers.

"Idiots," the Persian muttered, nudging the giggling Phil along.

"Kyoshi," Feolan declared in a pompous voice, "I think _I_ need to be nudged."

Kyoshi scowled at him before trotting away. "I certainly am _not_ nudging you."

Charles ushered them along. "Now, now, children," he said solemnly, "let's not bicker over who nudges who. This should be a happy occasion!"

As they were arguing, Bill got in front of them and walked up to a large computer where a man with his back turned was working. "CELIO!" Bill boomed happily, throwing his arms in the air.

'Celio,' a little shocked from the raucous greeting, turned around. "Bill!" he cried in a much milder voice.

When 'Celio' turned around, Ellen gasped.

Charles was sampling a free cookie that the Pokémon Center gave out and dropped it on the floor.

Kyoshi coughed up a huge hairball.

Feolan did an involuntary headstand.

And Phil, who was sniffing the pleasant aroma of the Center, suddenly snorted in to much and got a bit high.

Bill's friend also looked surprised, but didn't do anything irrational. "Ellen?" Miguel asked, lowering his glasses.

Ellen groaned. "Not another unexpected appearance…"

OoO

I always thought Miguel resembled Celio. Meh.

OH MY, IT'S BACK TO SCHOOL! ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER MIGRANE. If you don't hear from me via my writing, it's because the school bound and gagged me, and then threw me into a vat of boiling oil. Just kidding.

Oh yeah, and all those slang 70's words Mirror B uses, I got them off of this website: http/ Charles speaks French, don't try and Babelfish it because it comes out totally demented. Instead, here's the original.

'I believe that your mother was a fish and your father was made of horse shit. You, sir, are extremely and utterly bald, and I enjoy making fun of your lab coat and glasses. I can see myself in your shiny round head. I'm so handsome.'

Well, until next (hehe…) chapter…(muhaha!) AHAHAHAHA!

SEE YA!

P.S- I'm sad…The Crocodile Hunter died…I feel depressed now. Poor guy. I really thought he was cool.


	33. A Dooming Name

Well, not much to say besides enjoy the chapter, and REVIEW!

Oh yeah, I'm gonna say this loud and clear: ALL MY CHARACTERS BELONG TO ME; NO TAKING MY IDEAS OR CHARACTERS. YEAH, YOU HEARD ME. DON'T TAKE MY FIRST CHAPTER, DON'T TAKE MY CHARACTERS, AND DON'T TAKE MY DIFFERENT TEAM ROCKET.

Sorry. I'm paranoid.

P.S- I'm doing a three part chapter special. The body of it is called Realization, but you won't know why until the end of the 3 part special.

OoO

Fiery Sapphire, Ch. 33

A Dooming Name

Realization

Part One out of Three

Bill looked from Miguel, to Ellen, and back again. The Englishman smiled triumphantly as he saw both his friends stare at each other with awe.

Miguel took off his smudged glasses and blinked.

Bill snickered at his friend. "I knew you'd do that! You know, take off your glasses. You're the most predictable person I've _ever_ known."

"Wow!" Miguel cried finally, putting his glasses back on. "Ellen! Talk about a weird coincidence! What brings you here?"

"_I_ brought her on my boat after we met on Cinnabar," the young man explained haughtily, tugging on the collar of his tweed jacket. "She helped me out _quite_ a long time ago. And after she told me about what she's been doing, I'd know you two be surprised to see each other!" He wiggled his eyebrows and grinned. "I love making people meet at random intervals of time!"

Ellen, who had been silent until now, plopped down in a red chair beside the giant computer and looked up at her fellow Anti-Trainer. "So why are you here, Miggy?"

"Yeah, MIGGY," Feolan pressed obxiously.

"Don't call me Miggy," he muttered, and frowned. He then said, "Well, you know that as an Anti-Trainer you don't get paid, so…" he rolled his eyes at the stupidity of the Anti-Trainer logic, "I work here as a technician. Right now I'm trying to boot this huge computer, but it's not really working…" he turned his back to them and fooled with some of the buttons on the keyboard, but the screen didn't even blink.

Bill shrugged at Miguel's attempt. "Eh. You'll fix it someday." He slapped him on the back and the man winced, but Bill didn't seem to notice. "Here; let's do the Celadon College Cheer to cheer you up!" And Bill attempted to bring up Miguel's spirits with a hearty college cheer sung only by the Englishman himself. "_Two, nine, six, five- let's all hope we stay alive_! _We're good guys, we don't smoke pot- let's all hope we don't get shot! Kick 'em, choke 'em, punch and sock it- let's all go and kill Team Rocket! _Yaaaaaayyyyyy!"

Miguel mumbled to himself, "Somehow, I think Celadon College fuelled my career as an Anti-Trainer. But I just can't put my finger on it…"

The young man decided to sing the very last verses. "_We're so cool, like Tina Maj- let's all go and get a badge! How many are there, let's all count- One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six…seven…EIGHT! Eight badges! The last gym's tough, like Tim and Johnny, let's all go and crush Gi- _OH ELLEN, I COMPLETELY FORGOT! I need a favor of you!" Bill slowly came to a halt in his jumping jacks and fished something out of his pocket.

"A favor?" the teenager whined. "But I came here for a vacation!"

Charles nodded briskly and flexed his mighty wings. "Yeah," he agreed, placing his claws on his hips and glaring at Bill. "I want a foot massage, and I want one _now_. And my feet are _really_ gross. See?" Waving his arms in the air, he balanced on one foot and displayed his right foot, which was incredibly putrid.

"Eww," Phil giggled, "stinky!"

The young man heaved an exasperated sigh and pressed a small, round stone into Ellen's gloved palm. "After you deliver this meteorite to my friend down on Boon Island."

The group looked at him questionably.

"Er…Two Island, that is," he explained rather slowly. "Anyway, I know a chap who runs a Game Corner on the island, Robert, who has a heavy fascination for minerals. It'll be quick, I swear. Just hop on the Island transportation and pop right over to Boon Island and pop right back. And then you can do whatever you want."

Ellen eyed him suspiciously and stuck her face up to his. "Do they have frozen drinks…?"

"Yes."

"Do they have…nachos?"

"Yes."

"Do they have…doughnuts?"

"Yes."

"Do they have…dancing bananas?"

"Yes. I mean, no! No they don't. Now just go. I invited you to the islands, and if I were you, I would be _very grateful_."

"I'll see after a get back," she mused in a sinister voice, but smiled at him and put the meteorite in her backpack. "Well, I'll be back in about an hour, I guess. I don't know the islands to well, though…"

Miguel shifted around in his seat and pulled something out of his pocket to give to the girl. "Right. You'll need this to get on the ITS."

She grabbed the ticket from him. "ITS?"

"Island Transportation System," Bill explained. "It's a bit of a mouthful, so we just call it ITS."

"Cool." The Anti-Trainer shrugged nonchalantly and shifted her backpack higher on her back. The group slowly departed from the gigantic Pokémon Center and back onto the quaint little island where they quickly found the transport boat.

There were few other passengers on the ship bound for Boon Island, only a strange Goth trainer who was staring lovingly at the skull she had drew on a Pokéball, a older couple with a grandchild, and a little boy who never took his eyes off of Charles.

Half way though the boat's journey, Charles was getting a little worried about the boy staring at him unblinkingly. The little boy was fairly normal looking, with long red hair and a slightly curious expression on his face. He picked at his black jacket nervously when Charles shifted in his seat and cleared his throat politely.

"Ummm," the Charizard said, but the little boy only heard it as a menacing growl and turned away to stare out the window.

Meanwhile, Phil had dozed off and Kyoshi had found out something very curious about the Goth girl sitting next to them. The two were facing each other, goofy smiles plastered on both their faces.

'_Hi_,' Kyoshi thought.

'_Hi,'_ the Goth girl responded.

_'You're a depressed, cynical Physic too_?' Kyoshi asked.

The girl nodded, causing her long black hair to cover her face. '_Yeah. Life is meaningless. We all die in the end anyway._'

'_…you're officially my role model.'_

_'I'm so happy I could cut myself.'_

_'I'm so happy I could inflict a migraine on everyone in this boat.'_

_'Fufufu…"_ the Goth laughed ominously.

'_Fufufu,"_ Kyoshi copied.

Feolan wasn't having such a great time.

"I WANNA PET THE DOGGIE! _I WANNA PET THE DOGGIE_!" The little granddaughter of the older couple was screaming manically, tugging at Feolan's ears and basically pulling small tufts of fur out of his neck.

"ELLEN!" the Mightyena screamed. "HELP!"

The grandmother looked flustered and turned to the Anti-Trainer, giving her a disapproving, matronly look. "Control your Pokémon, please! There are children in this boat."

"_MUST…PET…NICE…DOGGIE_!"

"ELLEN, ELLEN! HE'S RIPPING MY SKIN OFF; _HE'S RIPPING MY SKIN OFF_! OH HOLY SHIT, MAKE IT STOP! HOLY MEW IN HEAVEN, _KILL ME_! JUST _KILL ME_!"

By now everyone in the boat was staring at the crazed Feolan; even the boat driver. Kyoshi finally had enough sense to slink over to the toddler and allow her to ram her fist on the Persian's head repeatedly, screaming, "_NICE KITTY, NICE KITTY_! _I LOVE NICE KITTY!_"

Finally the boat pulled into the Two Island Harbor and the Goth girl and Kyoshi said their tearful goodbyes, each promising each other to be as depressed and gloomy as they could. The older couple and granddaughter shimmied away, and when the boatman exclaimed that they were on Two Island, the red-haired boy frowned.

"Two Island?" he asked the sailor, glaring at him. "I clearly asked for Five Island. Get me to Five Island, _now_."

Meanwhile, our idiotic heroes and heroines were peering around the island, hoping to spot the Game Corner.

"D'you think it'll be another hideout and we'll have to fall into a poster again?" Feolan asked, once they asked some locals where it was. The Game Corner looked much nicer than the one in Celadon (obviously,) and was a small brick building with a sign happily boasting GAME CORNER.

"I doubt it," Ellen answered.

"But what if it is?" Phil asked.

The girl snorted with laughter as they opened a large garden gate leading to the Game Corner. "Then we get out of there as fast as we can, call the Antis, and tell 'em to do it themselves."

"GIVE 'EM HELL!" Charles roared, and bounded into the Game Corner.

OoO

After Ellen departed, Bill waited until the girl boarded the boat and then turned Miguel. "Great!" he exclaimed, giving his friend a thumbs-up. "She's gone."

Miguel rubbed his hands together. "Now I can tell you all the weird, embarrassing, or slightly frightening things Ellen's _ever_ done in the history of her being an Anti-Trainer!"

Bill pulled a chair over to the Anti-Trainer and sat down. "Okay then! Give me the _juicy details_!"

"Um…I'm going to forget you ever said that. Anyway, did you know…?"

"Yes…?"

"That when I first met Ellen…"

"Yes…?"

"She…_told Donovan that he was wearing women's boots_?"

Bill gasped and uttered a slightly unnerving giggle. "No!"

"Yes!"

"Ohmygod! Totally!"

"Um…Bill? You can stop acting like a girl now. It's sort of scaring me."

"Fine, fine. Just trying to be funny…So. Tell me more."

"Well, this one time she ordered Prickly Pear Flan from this restaurant, and…"

OoO

"No, no! Listen; I'm sorry, but I can't take the meteorite right now."

The man was pacing back and forth across the floor, running a sweaty palm through his graying hair. He adjusted the glasses on his large, protruding nose and then rubbed it. "Listen, it's very nice of Bill to give me something like that, but I can't accept it. My daughter's gone missing…I can't take it…"

Ellen stared at him, concerned, and cracked her knuckles out of sympathy. "Really? Sorry. What's her name? We'll keep an eye out for her if you want."

"Lostelle," Robert answered quickly, "her name is Lostelle."

Feolan snorted. "Huh! With a name like that, something bad is bound to happen."

"_Feolan_," Kyoshi hissed, glaring at him. "For Mew's sake, you're so irritable…"

"Well, hope you find your kid, but we got to get going," the teenager said, turning on her heel. "See ya!"

Robert looked desperately after them, and he suddenly ran in front of Ellen. "No! Wait," he cried pleadingly. "Please, you're look like a strong trainer! Help me find my daughter! Please, I'm begging you! Lostelle was always so adventurous…she would always explore the Berry Forest alone…" He shook his head. "And now she's probably lost in there. Listen, help me! I won't ask for anything ever again."

Ellen shifted uncomfortably as her Pokémon all stared at her, further increasing the pressure to help the man out. For some reason, she had a _bad_ feeling about getting mixed up in this. "Uh…listen, we'll do it. We'll help to find your kid."

"THANK YOU!" he boomed. "Thank you so much! Really, you don't know how much it means to me for you to do this. Really, thanks."

Just as they were about to leave, someone knocked on the Game Corner doors and Robert pushed them open to see a humongous, coffee-brown man clad in black leather and a mohawk.

"YO!" the large man growled in a deep, hollow voice. "IS THIS THREE ISLAND, 'CUZ IF YOU DON'T TELL ME, I _SWEAR_ I'LL KILL YOU BOTH!"

Ellen frowned and stared up at the man, thinking for a bit, and finally her mouth broke into a smile. "Mean Joe Green! Is that _you_?"

The huge man leaned down and stared at her, mouth set in a permanent snarl. After quite a while, he suddenly grinned and forced her into a bone-crushing hug. "BADASS ANTI-TRAINER, IT'S YOU! I mean…ugh…I WILL _CRUSH_ YOU! So, how've you been?"

"Great!"

"Great, us too! We're all practicing being tough, and now we're harassing the Three Island natives!"

"YOU DIDN'T HURT MY LITTLE GIRL LOSTELLE, NOW DID YOU?" Robert asked fiercely, shaking his fist at Mean Joe Green.

The biker timidly shook his head, but then remembered he was tough and screamed, "WE WOULD OF IF WE SAW HER, BUT WE DIDN'T!"

"Good."

Kyoshi made a _tsk-tsk_ noise and shook her head. "You bikers shouldn't be harassing the Three Islanders. It's really uncalled for."

When Ellen translated, Joe sunk his head and the girl added on, "Yeah, Kyoshi's right. I mean, you can be tough and not hurt anybody. Take Russell, for example. He hasn't done a single thing and everyone still respects him."

Charles nudged her with his elbow. "That's sort of because he's a bit handcapp-"

"Shut up. Take Phil, for example."

The Marshtomp squealed with delight.

"Phil's really tough." She paused. "Okay, maybe not. But sometimes he is."

Suddenly Phil started to twitch, wriggle, and squirm around on the ground. He slumped over and then suddenly stood up again, slowly, an insane, criminal grin on his face. He slowly turned to Ellen and pointed at her. "_I SWEAR I'LL KILL YOU, ELLEN_! _I'LL SNAP YOUR BONES! I'LL MASH YOU INTO A PULP! I'LL GOUGE YOUR EYES OUT! I'LL BREAK YOUR ELBOWS! I'LL PEEL YOUR SKIN OFF! I'LL- _Holy Fishnuggets!" He quickly placed his two fins over his mouth and tears sprung to his eyes. "I'm so sorry; I don't know why that happens every once in a while…I swear, it's nothing to be afraid of…Gee, I really need to see a doctor..."

By now Mean Joe Green had sped off, screaming about how a rabid Marshtomp was going to come and kill them all, and Robert looked a little worried at Phil's behavior.

"Great job," Ellen stormed at her Pokémon, "you just scared off Mean Joe! Now he probably hates us!"

"At least the bikers are gone," Feolan added, and there was a pause. "Uh…I guess we go to the Berry Forrest now."

"Onward," Kyoshi said dully, and after they said goodbye to the man and hopped on the boat to Three Island, or Kin Island.

As they were sailing on the boat, the passengers weren't as exciting as the others and consisted of a very nice older man mumbling something about the 'Nash Equilibrium' and how he should be getting back to 'Prinston,' a woman with light pink hair nodding her head to some music she was listening to and muttering, 'Stupid Girls,' and a simply teriffying man with a square little mustache and a tendancy to reach his arm out and do a sort of Roman salute.

Ellen kept far away from Strange-Mustache Man had had a feeling that she had already learned about him from somewhere…like a history book. No! That was crazy!

Anyway, as soon as the boat docked in Kin Island and the group departed, Charles gasped suddenly and flew up into the air, staring at something in the distance like a total idiot.

"HEY CHARLES!" Feolan yelled, craning his neck upwards, "WHATCHA SEE UP THERE?"

The Charizard swooped back down, paused for a moment to take a deep breath, and then said, "This is where Mt. Ember is!"

"So?"

"I was _born_ on Mt. Ember! My whole family lived there! Maybe after we help look for Lostelle we can visit me folks!" He clapped his claws together happily and displayed his sharp teeth in a grin. "I can see mum and dad and tell them all about the things we've done!"

Kyoshi nodded. "Maybe. But right now I think we should head to Berry Forest. It can't be that far away…can it?"

"Well gee, I don't know. You're the Physic one," Feolan muttered.

"Being Physic doesn't mean you have a good sense of direction!"

"Whatever!" the Mightyena finally stormed. He glanced around the grassy area and nudged a sign post. "There we go. This'll tell us where it is."

Ellen leaned down, moved away a tree branch that was blocking the sign and read, "_Berry Forest- to the right_." She straightened up and pointed to the right. "There we go, good enough for me. Now come on, Lostelle is probably dead by now."

Charles turned a bit green as they walked off. "How charming."

OoO

A small, pink kitten floated delicately in the Berry Forest, lazily curling its long tail around tree branches and giggling at the Pidgey that flitted past. Every Pokémon in the forest seemed enchanted by the kitten's presence, with its glowing aura, beautiful appearance, and graceful nature. It was the essence of purity, of freedom.

Mew did a small summersault in the air, sending a small cloud of shimmering dust from its paws and rested its fragile, fluffy body on the stump of a tree…and let out the most disgusting, smelly and vulgar burp anyone has ever done. Ever.

Mew belched again and all the Pokémon stared at it, flustered by the legendary's behavior. The kitten glared at all of them and then yelled in a loud, sandpaper voice, "WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM?"

All the Pokémon scattered, and Mew began to chew on a branch he found it the forest, rubbing his chin and discovering five o'clock shadow. "_God_," he grumbled, inserting a cute little claw into his nose, working around for a bit before finally discovering what he was looking for. "Huh! So that's where I left it. Mmm, boogers are _good_. Heh. _God,_ I can't believe that shithead let me out of TR's HQ. What an oaf! Jesus, everyone thinks I'm so freakin' cute and cuddly! HA!" He coughed up some phlegm and spit it on the ground, smiling wickedly when he saw that he had hit a terrified Wheedle. "I wonder where I can get some eats 'round here."

After a minute of slacking around, belching, and finishing off the remains of a tasty Pidgeotto, Mew stifled a yawn and levitated above the stump, scratching his tail-area lazily. "_God_, am I tired! Why'd I ever think of coming here? Great job, Mew, just _great_."

"Ummm…Miss. Mew?" A timid Oddish appeared from a clump of berry bushes, staring at Mew with a nervous pair of beady red eyes. "I…I just wanted to say that's it's an honor to meet you, and…um…I just saw a group of Rockets looking for you, Miss."

Mew swooped in front of the Oddish and drew himself to his greatest height, a terrifying 1'4. He loomed over the terrified plant, and started at him scornfully before booming, "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?"

"Ye…yes, Miss," Oddish said quietly, little tears forming in his eyes.

"I AM A _MALE_," Mew continued in a demonic voice, narrowing his huge blue eyes. "NOT A _FEMALE_. I AM A MR., NOT A _MISS_. NOW. GO AWAY BEFORE I DECIDE TO _EAT_ YOU."

Oddish suddenly frowned and cocked his head, peering up at Mew. "But…_sir_, I'm even taller than you are!"

"So was Groudon. Now get out of my sight, I want to be…_alone_." He dramatically draped his arm over his forehead and leered at the Pokémon. "Well go on, scram!"

"But the Rockets-"

"SCREW THE ROCKETS!" Mew screamed fiercely, and suddenly it began to pour down rain. The kitten slammed a paw on his forehead and slowly dragged it down his face, all the while grabbing the tuft of leaves upon the Oddish's head and pulling him up to eye level. "_God_, Holy shit." He jabbed his paw at the grass Pokémon. "_You_ made this happen, asshole! Now I'll _really_ have to eat you!"

By now the Oddish was sobbing hysterically.

"Yeah, that's right! Cower! COWER! You hear me? _Cower._" Mew suddenly dropped his little friend into a puddle of mud. "Okay, that's your lesson of the day. Now get lost."

The little Oddish finally did as he was told and hurried away, splashing through brownish puddles along with way. Mew ground his teeth together tried to wring out his muddy, pink fur, but to no avail. "Wet. _God_, I hate being wet. I feel like eating someone. Hey…wait!" The kitten spotted something very interesting with his sharp eyes. Just in a clearing across from the stump he was sitting on, a Grunt was meandering around, sopping wet and very unhappy.

Mew grinned, displaying sharp little teeth, and flew over to the clearing, peering at the Grunt. She was a short, pudgy Rocket, highly uncommon in the ranks of the Team, and looked a bit worried to be separated from the rest of the group.

"At least freaking this Grunt out will be fun," he mused, scratching the back of his head and scattering little flakes of dandruff in the air. "This one's a little more normal. I mean, that oaf who set me free was practically _dripping_ with angst. Seriously. _God_. He was almost as bad as Mewtwo."

The legendary floated behind the Grunt girl, opened his mouth and suddenly emitted the most disgusting belch anyone has ever committed. It was even worse that the first one he did, it was loud and obnoxious and had the faint smell of wet Arcanine, poisoned Ditto, and burned Beedrill. The Grunt's brown pigtails blew in front her from the impact, and she screamed shrilly, whipping around.

Mew meowed at her. "_God_," he mewed, sounding unexplainably cute.

The girl stumbled backwards and looked around the clearing. She cupped her black-clad hand to her mouth and yelled, "GU…GUYS? IT'S _MEW_!"

It took a minute to register in Mew's mind, but immediately two other male Grunts poked their heads out from the trees, one with blond hair, and the other with brown. They took one look at Mew and jumped by their teammate's side, and they each pulled out an Ultra Ball.

The kitten slapped his forehead, picked something out of his teeth, and spit it on the ground. He glared at them before muttering, "_God_, Ultra Balls. I _hate_ Ultra Balls."

And he swooped away.

The Grunt trio could actually maintain a good speed in keeping up with Mew, dodging through the trees and bushes and plants and anything else that got in their way. The legendary was crafty, though, and had a good enough head on his shoulders to know where his destination was: out of Berry Forest.

Suddenly Mew felt a sharp tug on his tail and craned his neck to see the blond Grunt gripping his tail, trying to pull him back. Mew smirked at him as the young man narrowed his brown eyes in concentration. The legendary was smarter than _that_.

_God_.

In some strange way, the kitten twisted his body back and crunched into the Grunt's left knuckle, enjoying the particularly crunchy taste that humans usually had. The Grunt yelped loudly and took his hands away, rubbing at the injured one with his good hand but still sprinting. The tubby female was having the hardest trouble keeping up, bent double from the exercise and occasionally tripping over gigantic tree roots and waving her arms out to keep balance.

Mew narrowed his eyes and increased his speed, ducking down to avoided tree branches. He couldn't afford to crash into one himself!

Just a bit further until he reached the exit…

Trees flew by in a blur, and he grinned. He would make it…he would make it… His smile suddenly faltered. A human was walking into the forest, surrounded by Pokémon. _God_! He was going to crash! _No, slow down you ass!_ he screamed at himself, but only went faster and faster. No…no…NO!

_God._

OoO

Ellen didn't even have time to blink at the drenched forest before a demented pink blob spiraled at her and knocked the Anti-Trainer off her feet. She made a small 'ouf!' noise and thudded to the ground, her torn jeans covered in watery mud. When Ellen opened her eyes, she saw a small pink kitten sitting on her shins and glaring at her, eyes narrowed.

"Uhh…_Mew_?" she exclaimed, totally dumbfounded, and Mew replied by eating a large booger from his nose.

"_God. _You're damn right it's Mew," he muttered acidly, and suddenly the group was surrounded by the three Grunts.

OoO

Hey, guess what time it is? It's…

**Big Important Notice (BIN)**

Guess what? Well, I'll give you a hint. Okay, maybe just an answer. Flameboo got off her butt and re-wrote a whole slew of FS chapters! Rejoice! Celebrate! Form a new religion!

Anyway, I also updated my bio, but not that anyone actually wants to read about boring ole' me. So, here's a list of the updated chapters:

Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Four, Chapter Five, Chapter Six, Chapter Seven, Chapter Eight, Chapter Fourteen

And…

Voted Crappiest Mini-Climax chapter ever, ever by Flameboo…

Here it comes, folks…

OMFG, CH. 15 WITH ELLEN AND THE GAME CORNER AND GIOVANNI AND MIRROR B. WHOOTWHOOTWHOOTONETWO5673!3!LOL

**End of BIN.**

Okay, let's see…

Nothing much else to say...

God, it seems the farther I get into FS, the less I have to say.

Oh yeah, when I wrote 'A Dooming Name,' I was refering to Lostelle, because...well...it sort of is.

Making Mew a slob was fun. I felt bad for it because when I was a _wee little girl_ (not) and I saw the first Pokémon Movie, I was determined to think that Mew was a girl, because it was so darn cute. I sort of got my wish, because in the FR/LG games…but I thought it was fun to make him a guy.

Well, until next chapter…

(sobs hysterically)


	34. Guns, Death, and Granola Bars

Hi.

Guess what? This is a really important chapter.

Guess what? This is the beginning of the end.

Read.

OoO

F.S 34

Guns, Death, and Granola Bars

Part Two of Realization

OoO

The Grunts that surrounded Ellen, Mew, and her Pokémon weren't as frightening as some of the other Rockets she had crossed paths with.

Of course, the Grunts were lower in status than her other enemies, but they somehow had a strange, almost lackluster quality about them. The pudgy female…the barrel-chested, brown-haired man…the blond teen…They all looked so…pathetic.

"Oh. My. God." Pudgy Girl whispered to her comrades fearfully, pointing at Ellen like she was a zoo animal. Her large, candy-apple red lips trembled a bit, and she asked, "Did we just, like…catch an Anti-Trainer?"

"We caught Fiery Sapphire," Brown Hair repeated, captivated by the whole scene. "Wow. We actually caught her."

Blond Head didn't say anything and continued to peer at his injured knuckle, probing at the bite that Mew gave him. He then stuffed it in his pocket and blinked, blinked again, and stared at the ground.

"So…what do we do now?" Pudgy Girl whispered to Blond Head. "Knock out her and her Pokémon and tie 'em up?"

"I…don't like g-getting i-involved in t-things like t-this…" he muttered, and for the first time he spoke in a slightly nasal voice, but what was most odd about him was the permanent stutter he had in his voice. He glanced at Ellen thoughtfully and remarked, "I…g-guess we b-bring her b-back to Headquarters…"

"STUPIDEST IDEA I'VE EVER HEARD OF," Brown Hair boomed, and punched Blond Head on the arm with his large fist. The older teenager winced quietly. "Once again, stupidest idea ever heard of. Listen, I can't believe you still don't understand how things work 'round here. If we bring her back and admit to capturing her, what'll everyone else think?"

"Yeah," the girl agreed hotly, placing her chunky arms at her hips.

Blond Head rubbed his nose a bit and stuffed his hands in his black pants pockets, staring at the leafy, wet floor of the forest. "I…g-guess they w-would be p-pretty h-happy…" Still, the stutter was permanent.

"_Wrong_," Pudgy Girl rolled her eyes at him. "Come on, Jack. Get a life. Bringing her back means rubbing it in Boss's face that _we_ defeated her, not _him_. And that's trouble."

"G-giovanni is a b-bastard," Jack said simply.

The two other Grunts stared at him.

Brown Hair finally spoke up. "You call him Boss, Jack. And he's not a bastard."

"G-giovanni is a b-bastard," the Grunt remarked again, his lips twitching in mid-smile.

Brown Hair shook his head. "Man, are you in deep shit now…Come on, now let's deal with Fiery Sapphire."

But when they turned to her, all they saw was a snarling albino Mightyena, lips pulled back to reveal large, oppressive fangs.

OoO

Even before the pudgy Grunt whispered, 'Oh my God' to her comrade, Ellen had been gaping about her. Everything had happened so quickly- The Seventh Badge, Bill, Miguel, Lostelle, Mew, and now three Grunts staring straight at her, discussing what to do!

Mew was still glaring at her when she looked down at him, swishing his long tail back and forth angrily. "Well great job, Dummy. _God_, look what you've gotten us into now."

"_Us_?" Ellen sputtered wildly, shaking Mew off of her legs. The kitten meowed unhappily and plopped down on the ground. "Whatdya mean 'us'? You're the one who just crashed into me!"

"Yeah right," he grumbled, turning away.

Charles helped the Anti-Trainer stand up, and the Blond Head Grunt regarded her curiously, blinking like a confused Slowpoke. The two other Grunts were bickering at the blond now, yakking on about how the Boss would be mad at them for succeeding or something- it was sort of in a jumble.

"I say we get out of here while we still can…Lostelle isn't important anymore…" The Charizard took one last look at the Grunts before spreading his royal blue wings apart, beating them quietly. "Come on, quick, before they notice."

"I think Blondie already noticed," Feolan muttered to the group, jerking his muzzle at Blond Head. The boy stared back at him, and the Mightyena smiled devilishly. "Hold on. I think I know how to handle this. Guys, get ready to take off…"

As the group did indeed ready themselves, Feolan flattened himself out on the ground and uttered a low, deep growl, baring his yellowish fangs. He extended his claws. Pudgy Girl stopped in mid-sentence and turned to the albino Mightyena. She opened her mouth to say something, but Feolan had already tackled Brown Hair to the ground and as the other girl Grunt produced a Pokéball from her pocket, Feolan jumped off the Grunt and onto Charles.

The Charizard immediately leapt up and opened his wings, taking off through the Berry Forest. The trees were thick and the spaces between them were small, but he could make it through with some clever flying maneuvers and maybe a bit of luck. The Grunts stared after them, astounded, until they sprung into action and pulled out their Pokémon, Pudgy Girl a Golbat and Brown Hair a Scyther.

Blond Head stared at the ground and gingerly pulled a Pokéball from his pocket, releasing a Haunter. The ghost cackled delightedly and looked around, eyes fixed on the mere outline of the Charizard speeding through the misty air. Blond Head sighed heavily and ran to meet his teammates.

Meanwhile, Charles had been flying for a while with the whole crew on his back. The Charizard experienced a dull ache with every movement from such weight, and finally he had to land in a small, hidden ravine after the group had found a more isolated part of Berry Forest. It was still raining and terribly cold, but the thick canopy of huge, claw-like trees prevented the rain from being to strong.

The first thing Mew did after jumping neatly off of Charles and looking around the muddy rock formation; was curl his paw into a fist and smash it onto Charles's head. "WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU JUST TAKE THE EXIT? WE WERE PRACTICALLY _STANDING ON IT_! _GOD!_" Mew boomed, swooping over to Charles and landing on his head. The Charizard watched with admiration as the legendary itched his flea-infested fur.

"Sorry," he replied meekly, sinking his head. The kitten released a yelp and tumbled to the ground, snatching up a Metapod from the earthy floor. "I was just so surprised."

"Yeah, Mr. High and Mighty," Feolan growled, cornering Mew against the rocky wall of the ravine, "since you're a legendary, why didn't _you_ do anything?"

Mew thrust his head at Feolan and curled up his lips in a toothy grin. "You don't wanna mess with _me_," he growled, and crunched into the Metapod he was holding, sending a splatter of thick, red blood on the ground. Feolan's eyes popped open and he stumbled back against a tree trunk. The legendary hooted with laughter.

"And speaking of Team Rocket," Mew continued haughtily, floating over to Ellen only to settle on her backpack, "I think I'll be sticking around with you guys for a while. You aren't leaving me here with these Rockets!"

Ellen's eyes widened and she looked back at him, a bit intimidated Mew despite his size. "Um…dude, you just ate half a Metapod. I think you can handle being on your own…"

He rolled his eyes and snorted. Mew threw the Metapod aside and using his teeth unzipped the Anti-Trainer's backpack. "I wish! But Team Rocket got some pretty dangerous equipment, and…" he trailed off when he noticed something in the backpack and emitted a squeal of delight. "You have granola bars? _GOD_! I'm starving, hand 'em over!"

Before Mew could jab his grubby little paw into her miniscule food supply, Ellen snatched away her backpack. "Mew! Concentrate on getting out of here, not food!"

Mew belched. "Whatever. Fine, you wanna make a plan? Okay then, let's get the hell out of here before Mr. Angst and Ms. Chanel find us."

"_Mr. Angst_?" Kyoshi asked curiously, and her green eyes widened. "Sir, you're going to have to speak a bit more clear…you're terribly vulgar for a Physic…"

"_God_." Mew harrumphed, and wrinkled his nose up in a disgustingly cute way. "Mr. Angst…lessee…Black hair? Weird looking Pikachu? Women's boots? Really, really angsty? _Knives_?"

"Donovan," they all said automatically.

"And if Donovan is there…" Phil let the sentence fall and he looked at the ground. "Then…there might me a chance of…"

"Yeah," Ellen said simply, resting an elbow on her knee. Mew cocked his head at her.

"What kind of an answer is that?" he asked. "What's getting _your_ undies in a knot? _God_. Listen, the only Rockets I saw here were 'Donovan' and that other lady with some seriously good looks."

"Troy," Feolan said flatly. "Gee, that's a cold comfort."

Mew was about to answer the Mightyena, but Charles quickly interrupted. "Listen, we can't stay here forever," the Charizard said in a low voice, ignoring the kitten's offended glare at him. He stood up from the rock wall he was sitting at and stifled a grumble. "We've got a small army of Rockets on our tail. It's pouring out. I can't fly above the treetops. We're _lost in a forest_. We got to keep moving."

"I hate to say it, but Charles is right," Feolan agreed gruffly. "Come on. Yeah, you too, Mew. And no granola bars for you."

Mew sat on a mossy stone and began to sulk, and rested his head in his hands. He uttered a large sigh, saddened. Suddenly something rustled very faintly in the bushes; the legendary's mouth turned up in a grin. A snack…

The kitten edged forward a bit, back arched and taunt, while the group watched as he scampered forward into the bushes, and…

…moments later, the Blond Head Grunt from before let out a cry of surprise and stumbled back into the ravine, while Mew jumped in fright. The Grunt, presumably 'Jack,' crawled away from Mew until he was backed up against a tree and then quickly sprang up, eyeing the company before him.

"H-hey," he said hoarsely, jabbing his index finger at Ellen, "y-you're…w-wanted by Team…R-rocket…" his speech became looser and looser until he let his arm fall and shrank back a bit in the forest. "Um…if you don't c-come quietly…I'll…b-battle…y-you…"

"Really?" Feolan asked wildly, staggering in mock surprise. He reared up on his back legs and rolled his head back. "Oh, shit! A Grunt is gonna battle us. We're _screwed_!"

"I s-swear, I-I w-will…" Jack stammered again, edging forward a bit. "I'm t-tougher than y-you t-think…"

He wasn't exactly intimidating; his thin, bony figure, matted blonde hair, and constant stutter didn't present much of a challenge, and his wide-eyed gaze upon the world made him look even more innocent.

"Dude," Ellen said ferociously, thrusting her head out at him and stepping forward, pounding her old sneaker on the damp forest ground, "I've got a helluva lot of strong Pokémon. You don't want to mess with an Anti-Trainer like _me_. Now get lost."

"I-I don't," Jack mumbled robotically, and lowered his head. "I don't w-want to mess with an A-anti-Trainer like y-you."

The Grunt slowly moved backwards, slowing being covered by all sorts of foliage until he turned on his heel and sprinted away as his Haunter followed suite.

Mew slowly came out from behind his rock and huffed angrily, licking at his injured arm where a small cut had appeared. "Tch. Haunters. Ghosts. _God_. And what the heck was that about, anyway?"

The group looked at each other, puzzled. A Grunt…just ran away from them. Was Team Rocket…_scared_ of them now? Did they fear them?

"Let's keep moving," Charles suggested in the moment of uncomfortable silence. "We'll be safer."

There were choruses of agreement all around, and after all mounting the Charizard they flew off into another part of the forest.

OoO

"Donovan."

He ignored the buzz.

"Donovan."

Ignore, ignore, ignore.

"Donovan!"

Troy wasn't _really_ calling him…was she? No, just ignore it.

"_DONOVAN_!"

"_WHAT_?" The executive finally unclipped the walkie-talkie from his belt and held it up to his face, voice shivering with irritation. "Listen…I'm lost in the freaking Berry Forest…I don't know where the Capture Trio is…and _I'M SOAKING WET_."

True to his words, Donovan's black tee-shirt and jeans were drenched from the torrential downpour. The little black spikes were gone from his head and now his hair was plastered down against his skull, and his healed leg was still tingling from pain. Even Donovan Jr. looked irritated by the rain, snorting whenever it crept up its nose.

"_What_?" the executive growled again, leaning against a huge, mossy tee, "What now?"

"I'm lost too," Troy admitted in a fluttery voice.

"Wow. And what do you want _me_ to do about it? I'm lost, you're lost, and the Grunts are gone." He rolled his eyes, but squinted painfully when large drops of rain landed on them. "Why don't you call the Capture Trio?"

There was a small silence, and Troy suddenly exclaimed, "WHY DON'T I CALL THE CAPTURE TRIO? Hold on a second, Kyler!"

"Wow, Hobotson, just _wow_. And by the way, stick it up your ass."

Troy finally came back on the line, but there was some strange crackling and buzzing in the background. Donovan frowned and blamed the rain, but he suddenly realized that Troy was hyperventilating heavily.

"Troy? Troy, what's the matter?" His voice became more urgent as the silence increased. "Troy! Come on, tell me!"

"_Anti-Trainers_," the woman hissed venomously, and Donovan could already imagine her scarlet lips curling into a scowl. "_Anti-Trainers_."

"_Damn_! W-which one?"

"Guess."

The executive groaned with aggravation and sat down on a rock. "Do I _want_ to know?"

"Fiery Sapphire," Troy growled.

"Damn," Donovan said again.

"And Jack isn't responding on his walkie-talkie."

The young man jumped up from his seat. "DAMN! What happened to our mission? _Catch Mew_. It wasn't that hard!"

Troy sighed dramatically. "_You're_ telling _me_? You're the one who's supposed to do the dirty work! Get over yourself! I'll try and find you. _Au revoir_."

"Yeah. Arr revowar. _Asshole_…"

Donovan Jr. looked up at its trainer curiously, trying to comprehend some of the colorful words Donovan used as began to walk away. The Pikachu's stomach grumbled, and before it followed its master Donovan Jr. paused for a light snack of decapitated Hypno.

OoO

Haunter held the crushed walkie-talkie in her ghostly claw and peered at her trainer wearily with her beady black pupils. She swallowed. "I don't know if that was a good idea, Jack. Making me destroy your communicator thing here? You're a little disheveled, aren't you?"

Jack didn't respond, obviously, and removed his black cap from his head and tossed in on the ground fitfully. He felt so…confused after meeting the Anti-Trainer. Something was terribly wrong…why did he feel so…out of place?

"You're confused," she continued, floating in front of him. The boy stopped and stared at his Pokémon, a forlorn expression on his face. "Listen, Jack, I've known you for a long time now. What's a matter? I know you can't understand me, but…" she sighed and threw her hands in the air. "_Oi Vey_! I give up."

The Grunt looked up at the ghost and opened his mouth to answer, but suddenly a harsh voice yelled: "JACK! GRUNT! YOU SHITHEAD!"

"D-donovan," Jack muttered to himself, and indeed the executive jumped out of the bushes.

With hostile intent Donovan grabbed the teen by the shoulders and began shaking him violently, hissing, "What…the…_HELL_…were…you…_thinking_?"

"W-what?" Jack cried, head bobbing back and forth like a limp rag doll. The Haunter rolled her eyes and turned away. There wasn't anything she could do about this…

"_WHY THE HELL DID YOU LEAVE YOUR TRIO_?" he screamed wildly, and detached his hands from the Grunt's shoulders and gave him a sharp push sending him wheeling backwards, pounding against a tree.

Jack rubbed his bruised shoulder and groaned, glowering at Donovan. "T-that g-girl was an A-anti-trainer or s-something, s-so I c-chased her, but-" he stopped and frowned. Why had he fled? "Uh…she was t-too s-strong," he managed to explain, drawing a good excuse from the back of his mind.

"So you _ran away_?" he growled.

Jack blinked. "W-what's an A-anti-trainer?"

Donovan's little 'count to ten' trick usually worked, but in this scenario he just disposed of the idea and landed his fist on the Grunt's arm. The teen winced, but didn't show much pain. "Anti-Trainers. Sworn enemies, man, sworn enemies! You should have known this already! You know, the crackheads who've been messing with us even before I came? They're evil, Jack. Bad."

"W-who's t-that g-girl?"

"An Anti-trainer."

Something inside Jack's mind suddenly clicked into position; he twisted up his mouth in thought and finally exclaimed something revolutionary. "H-how c-come if G-giovanni's so g-great, t-then why d-does he keep on g-getting b-beat up b-by the A-anti-trainers?"

"HEY! EXCUSE _YOU_!" The two whipped around to see Troy standing in front of the brambles, fists on her hips and looking quite intimidating in her tight, black outfit entirely composed of dyed Charizard skin. Her blue eyes gleamed from under the familiar cat-eye glasses she wore. "For your _information_, the only reason my Italian Stallion got some teeny-tiny little injuries was because of the Anti-Trainer's _Pokémon_." Smiling, she ran a manicured fingernail down the side of her tank-top. "Perhaps this'll intimidate that Charizard a bit."

"Eww," Jack whispered.

"Now chop-chop, let's go find the Anti-Trainer!" Troy clapped her hands together softly and wheeled around on her boot, about to walk away.

Donovan raised his eyebrows. "Wait a second. What about Mew?"

"Mew can wait," she replied simply, but frowned. "Don't you care about ripping the Anti-Trainer's spine out or something delightful like that?"

"Hey, I'm just the assassin," the executive said, shrugging. He held his hands up in mock defeat. "Whatever you want. I'd be happy to. Come on, Jack." He growled this last line and tugged on the Grunt's arm, causing him to stumble forward.

Jack wrenched his arm away and turned back to the Haunter, and a sympathetic expression crossed her face. The Grunt jerked his head around, ignoring Donovan's call to hurry up. He stared at his Haunter. "G-gwen," he whispered finally, eyes darting back and forth like a hunted animal, "I-I don't k-know w-what's h-happening. But…" he struggled to keep his stutter under control. "we've know e-each other for a l-long time."

The Haunter smiled and nodded.

"A-and…I want you to d-do something for me. M-make me i-invisible so I can f-find the Anti-Trainer."

Gwen the Haunter stared at him, mouth agape. Never before had Jack asked for something against the code of Team Rocket…she bit her lower lip and nodded slowly. "Okay, Jack. Whatever you say, whatever you say."

Gwen closed her eyes and concentrated. Making a human invisible would be hard, their mass and density wasn't exactly light, and combined with the sheer weight of all the cells and bones and everything that made up a living thing, the complication of making something so complex become _nothing_ was impossible, and furthermore-

"Gwen. It w-worked. You can s-stop now."

The Haunter opened her eyes and saw nothing.

She smiled, and Jack tugged on one of the ghostly spikes that jutted from her head. "C-come on, we're f-finding the A-anti-Trainer."

And Jack ran away from Team Rocket for the last time.

OoO

Kyoshi's feline face loomed over Ellen, the shadows of upcoming dark hiding most of the Persian's face. The Anti-Trainer was lying on the ground, hands tucked under her to cushion the damp leaves. Drops of rain splattered.

"You can't just laze forever," Kyoshi said in monotone, green eyes unblinking. "We _have_ to keep moving. And besides, you'll catch hypothermia."

"Jacket," Ellen replied dully, and pointed to the dark gray blazer she had donned.

"Not enough."

"Gloves," she said, indicating her batting gloves.

The Persian sighed loudly and loped away, shaking her head. "Honestly…"

The Anti-Trainer sat up and rubbed the back of her head tiredly, groaning when she found clusters of mud stuck in her hair. Mew snickered and picked up another glob of mud, plopping it on her head. Everyone rolled their eyes.

Charles finally shifted from his sitting position and walked over to Ellen. He took one skeptical look at her and grabbed the collar of her jacket. With a swift tug he pulled her to her feet, dizzy but unharmed.

"What the hell was that?" the Anti-Trainer finally exclaimed at the Charizard, and reached up to whack him upside the head. Charles chucked when Ellen could barely reach her hand up to his snout, but soon quieted when his gaze reached Mew.

Mew was meowing in a terrific voice like that of a wet Skitty and flicking his long tail this way and that, balancing in mid-air. His fur bristled once more and his blue pupils dilated. The legendary's head jerked around wildly and finally stopped dead in the direction of a large, mossy tree.

"Mew…?" Phil asked uneasily, stumbling over to him. The kitten immediately reacted to this and sprang forwards, claws extended. There was a flash of purple, and suddenly Mew was pinned to the ground, tiny arms and legs held down by a ghostly force. As he kicked his little paws, the force slowly revealed itself to be a Haunter.

As if a blur, Feolan was instantly on the Haunter, prying it off of Mew. With a swift slash of his claws and a snap of his teeth, the Haunter began retreating, and when the Mightyena moved in for the fatal hit-

"W-WAIT!" the voice was staccato was panic, and Feolan slowly turned around. "Wait! No, h-hold on!" With a slight movement from the foliage, Jack the Grunt appeared again and held his hands out to signify he meant no harm. "S-seriously, d-don't attack. Y-you have to r-run. D-donovan and Troy are c-coming."

As the group was surprised once more by this curious deal of fates, Ellen's face twisted into an expression of hard thought. "Why should we trust you?" she finally asked, sucking on her teeth. "You're a Grunt. A Rocket."

Jack frowned, accepting her point. "O-okay…o-okay…b-but…" he paused and sighed, letting his hands fall. "A-anti-Trainers…I k-know too m-much a-about them…W-what's h-happening?" He looked up at her, waiting for an answer. All he got were strange looks. "I'm a R-rocket, but I-I d-don't k-know what's h-happening…and e-everything is f-familiar and S-silph Co and my b-brother and the b-badges and the G-gyms and T-team R-rocket an-"

"Hold on." Charles was staring at him with wide eyes, nostrils flared. His mouth was slightly open, displaying his jagged incisors, and he uttered a sort of alarmed growl. "Hold on," he growled again, and everything was silent.

Dead silent.

He pointed his claw at the teenage Grunt and turned his head to Ellen, looking at her gravely. "Ellen. Did you…_hear_ what he said?"

The Anti-Trainer gulped. "Donovan and Troy are comin' soon?"

"_No_!" he answered sharply. "His said his _brother_. Do…do you understand what I'm trying to tell you…?"

"Come on, Charles. You're freaking me out." She cocked her head at him, but something inside her head clicked on. "What?"

He lowered his head in thought. "Listen…when you first became an Anti-Trainer…remember…remember when Miguel told you about…"

"His brother?" Feolan finished. "Yeah…yeah I do…_yeah_…" The Mightyena's eyes widened to extreme proportions, and he stared at Jack.

"Holy shit. Holy shit. _Holy shit_, you're kidding." Ellen shook her head. "Oh my God. He- He's Miguel's brother?"

"Miguel?" Jack asked suddenly, voice shaking. Everything was in a commotion now. "Miguel. Miguel! My b-brother…?"

Everything was suddenly clear. Miguel's brother's kidnapping at Silph Co…his disappearance…the constant thought he was dead…even Jack's physical features now bared a close resemblance to Miguel's, in fact save for the glasses he looked remarkably like him.

Jack was beginning to understand his scenario. The Grunt began to breathe heavily, and he was in a general state of panic. Ellen began to fumble in her backpack and murmured, "We're calling the Antis."

"A-antis," the boy said wistfully, lips curving into a smile, and he rapidly broke into a fit frightened tears.

Charles put his arm around Jack's shoulders and gave him a comforting pat on the back. "Mew," he asked loudly, still looking at Jack, "I know this might sound funny, but do you know how to teleport?"

No one answered.

Charles frowned and looked up. "Mew…?"

Mew was gone.

And in his place, an Ultra Ball that gleamed white with recent capture.

Jack looked up and shook his head rapidly, tears still streaming down his face. "T-the R-rockets are h-here! God n-no, the R-rockets are h-here!"

And they were.

Troy entered first. Her sneer was unchanged when she found them, and she wiggled her perfectly tweezed eyebrows at Charles when he realized her familiar attire. His face became a bit green and he took a step backwards.

"I…suppose this is the first time we've been formally introduced," the woman purred Ellen when she saw her, lowering her glasses a bit and staring at her in disgust. "My, my, aren't you…_unusual_. I hate to say that I dislike the sickly look."

The Anti-Trainer held her stance.

"Yeah." Donovan appeared behind Troy and flashed Ellen and Jack seething glares. Donovan Jr. scuttled out from under a tree root and grabbed the Ultra Ball that held Mew, gnawing it playfully. "You've made it hard for us. Now come on, give in."

Jack lurched forward and directed his hostile expression towards the two executives. "T-team R-rocket is an h-horrible organization. You're all e-evil, _e-evil_ p-people…and…y-you k-kidnapped me. B-but I'm s-safe now. That's w-why t-they're A-anti-Trainers out t-there. Like my b-brother." Proud, he smiled at the two executives.

Troy's face became deathly pale and she stared at him, crimson lips parted slightly. "He found out."

From behind her, Donovan muttered a cuss. Things were not working out as they planned. He squinted his eyes together, thinking, and slowly relaxed and pulled something from his pocket. He smiled.

"Y-you're a-all a-assholes," Jack continued, still on a role. He was unaware that Donovan was concentrating on him now, "Y-you h-hurt Pokémon…y-you…h-hurt _people_. I m-mean, I can't e-even f-fathom h-how you're b-bastard of a l-leader can d-do t-thi-"

Something whizzed through the air and ceased the teen's speech suddenly. His face full of shock, Jack uttered a small wheeze and clutched the side of his stomach, doubling over. His skin was drained of color, his hands shaking. Something red tricked down the side of his torso.

Kyoshi winced when a flash of metal hit reached her eyes.

"_DONOVAN, YOU SONUVABITCH_!" Ellen shrieked wildly, and threw herself at him in rage. Her blood boiled horribly, temper and ire were released as she aimed her fists at the executive, but all she met was the base of a tree. Donovan had moved swiftly out of the way, pushing a flustered Troy aside. He grabbed her by the neck and forced his thumb into the base of her throat, paralyzing the Anti-Trainer with a tremor of pain and alarm.

A nice little trick that Giovanni had taught him.

Ellen gasped for breath as Donovan thrust his palm out at Jack and said, voice shaking with wrath, "Give me my knife. Give it here. Pull it out of your stomach. The blood'll clot eventually. Now, give it here so I can kill her."

Jack was on the mossy ground now, a small pool of blood trickling from the wound. His eyes were squeezed shut, streaming with tears, but he did as he was told and placed both hands on the knife's base. His hands tightened around it, and wrenched the knife half-way but suddenly stopped and let his hands fall. He began to sob.

Kyoshi and Feolan were instantly upon Donovan, spitting and hissing and roaring and anything else they could do to damage him. Troy reared back in fright as the executive and Pokémon collided and separated, Ellen twisting from Donovan's grasp only to collide with the other executive.

The two enemies stared at each other for a split second, dazed. Troy reacted first, grinning madly as she screamed, "HOW DO YOU LIKE _THIS_?" The woman took her foot of the ground to display a tight black leather boot with an outrageously high heel. The Anti-Trainer stumbled back to retreat as Troy thrust her shoe deep into Ellen's leg. The woman cackled wildly as the girl's leg buckled and hit the ground, rolling onto her side.

Troy was still giggling with lunacy when she produced something from her pocket; a sleek, compact gun.

It wasn't a new firearm; it was old and scratched but still held a sort of eerie grandiose to it with a custom design handle. The gun looked as if it had been cleaned and polished many times, but it could never rid itself of the scratches and nicks of age.

Phil whined with fear as the woman tossed the pistol back and forth in her pale hands, this way and that. Ellen scrambled towards her Pokémon and was quickly to her feet. Troy aimed the gun first at Jack, then Ellen, then slowly at all the other protagonists in the forest clearing, each giving them a second to tremble in fear.

"This gun is loaded with at least six bullets," she said loudly, her voice heightening over the sobs of Jack. "I can afford to shoot you all if need be." She jerked the barrel of the gun in a line across the air, letting it waver a bit over the two Anti-Trainers. "Line up. One by one, across the stone wall starting with Fiery Sapphire."

A deep growl sounded from Charles as he clumped forward in front of Jack and Ellen, spreading his wings out to the immense span of eight feet. "_You really expect us to just line up for you_?" he snarled ferociously, parting his jaws to reveal jagged incisors. The dragon looked from Troy to Donovan. "_WELL_?"

Troy Hobotson frowned and shot Charles.

Luckily, her aim wasn't that good and the bullet carved through the Charizard's wing, tearing the thin film of skin on his wing. Charles opened his mouth and emitted a deep screech of pain, pawing at the small bullet hole to his left as the others gasped in shock. Phil buried his head in Kyoshi's fur. Troy plastered a quaint little smile to her face as she turned to whisper something to Donovan.

The other executive raised his eyebrow at her. "Leave? _Right now_? No!" Donovan began to advance forward but hesitated when his eyes met the group of Pokémon. "I've got a bone to pick with the two Anti-Trainers. And I need to get my knife back."

"_No_, Donovan," the executive said sharply, shooting a glare at him. "I have the power to control you, and I suggest you listen to me."

Ignoring her, he turned to the opposing group. "Give me the knife back."

From behind Charles, Ellen stood up and brandished the blooded knife in her hand, raising it to eyelevel for him to see. "_YOU WANT THE FREAKIN' KNIFE_?" she screamed, shaking the blade back and forth rapidly. "Really? Come and get it, then."

"Y-yeah." Jack's weak voice reverberated across the clearing. "I-I'm n-not d-dead y-yet."

Donovan stepped forward, jaw set in a grimace, fists balled, and knuckles bone-white. Troy grabbed the executive shoulder and jerked him backwards, screaming, "LISTEN TO _ME_!"

The young man stared at her for a second before grabbing her wrist and jerking it violently from his shoulder. Despite Troy appearing to be taller and more intimidating than her partner in crime, she was frightened when Donovan curled up his fists, aiming for a violent maneuver.

Donovan absolutely _hated_ Troy. He could now proudly say that Troy stood up there with Fiery Sapphire, Jack, Gold, _and_ Giovanni. She was a bitch, a slut, and anything else that could come to mind in the negative sense. Pompous, decadent, and officious, all that Troy held for herself was appearance and rank. All those cruel attempts to fire Donovan from the Team would never pay off. Never! He would finish it then and there!

Troy absolutely _hated_ Donovan. He was an obstacle in the path of complete and utter success. If he had never joined the Team one faithful day, timid, worried, and completely desperate for recognition, the Game Corner would still be intact, Silph Co would still be under their control, and Giovanni would have the pleasure of chaining every Anti-Trainer up to a wall and shooting them though the head; a chaotic, bloody shot, savoring victory as the bullet would lodge itself in the cavity of the forehead. First Red would die, then Crystal, Silver, Gold, Jack, and finally the suffering, horrified Fiery Sapphire. And then Giovanni and herself could be together again, a happy couple! No worries about Anti-Trainers…just the two of them. All those meager attempts to succeed would never pay off! Never! She would finish it then and there!

"GET YOUR HANDS _OFF ME_!" Troy screamed.

And this is what happened next.

The woman suddenly brought the gun forward and cracked it against Donovan's head, making his arm go limp with pain. The executive clutched his head in a stupor of pain when Troy pushed the barrel of the gun against Donovan's chest, jerking it forward, and fired.

Silence. No scream, no shriek, just silence. It was terrifying. The blood was already beginning to spill across the ground as the young man staggered back, gasping, clutching at his gun wound directly in his chest. Hands shaking, Troy held the gun up and fired again, this time catching him in the neck.

Donovan Jr. looked up curiously as he saw its trainer fall to the ground, his body shaking from spasms of pain. Blood was already seeping through his black tee-shirt, staining the leafy ground. The executive was curled up now, clutching his chest, leaning over to vomit blood. The Pikachu's nose quivered excitedly and it cocked its head. What was wrong? There _was_ the delicious scent of blood lingering around, but…

And suddenly Donovan stopped moving altogether. His limbs went limp, his vicious expression relaxed, his green eyes stopped tearing, and everything was still.

Troy was white with shock. She let the gun fall from her hands and land on the ground, allowing herself a bit of time to pick it up again before warily tip-toeing over to the executive's body. She nudged his shoulder with her boot, a grave expression crossing her face.

"Dead," she whispered bluntly. "He's dead."

Ellen stared ahead of her, murky gray eyes resting on the corpse. She still had the knife in her hand, cold and wet with blood. Jack gnawed on his fist to hide his terrified emotions; the boy bare-chested, using his muddy Grunt shirt as a make-shift bandage.

"Dead. Dead. Wow. I'd never thought you'd do it, Fiery Sapphire." Troy looked up at her, some glint in her eyes that told everyone how exactly sane she was.

"_I did it_?" the girl choked out, and she bit her lower lip. Donovan was dead! Gone! No more knives, no more threatening occurrences! Shot by his own cohort! "Whatdya mean, me?"

"Well, _I_ obviously can't kill Donovan. Gi-Gi would hate me for it. So I'm telling him that _you_ wrenched _his_ gun from me…" she waved the gun in the air, and something frightened Ellen terribly. It was large enough to see that on the handle the letter G was etched into the medal in a sort of elegant script. The Anti-Trainer wanted to turn away and vomit from some unknown sickness; her stomach churned with dread and anxiety.

"…And killed Donovan," Troy finished smugly. She flashed a kind smile at Donovan's corpse and suddenly aimed a swift kick at its head, shrieking with laugher as there was a dull, wet cracking sound. "I never liked him, anyway! Well, time to go! Pikachu! Bring me that Pokéball!"

Donovan Jr. stared at her and then looked at it trainer's body for a minute, examining the fresh gun wounds. It looked up at Troy again and saw the gun.

And the Pikachu bit the Pokéball.

There was a flash of white light and the form of Mew appeared, the kitten holding a confused expression.

"_God_. What the hell happened here?" he asked, looking around, but shrugged. Without offering anything such as a good-bye, he flew up into the treetops and soared away.

Troy screamed in fury and took out a Pokéball, slamming it on the ground. A great, brown Fearow appeared suddenly, flapping its huge wings. The sharp, needle point beak clacked impatiently as the woman; a murderer, criminal, and fashion expert mounted it. The entire group moved forward as if to stop her from getting away, but with a flurry of feathers the Fearow swooped off into the rainy skies, the caws of the bird mixings with the insane giggles of Troy Hobotson.

"_Au revoir_, MURDERERS!" The woman shrieked, and disappeared into the murky sky.

They didn't bother chasing her.

And as she sped off and the Pokémon burst into a fearful commotion, crowding around them and Donovan's corpse, Ellen and Jack looked at each other unblinkingly, silently understanding. Jack nodded at her, as if saying, '_We were both hired to do the same thing. Destroy Team Rocket. But you're the one who needs to do it, not me._'

Fiery Sapphire nodded in return as the Pokémon gathered around the two, making sure they were alright and strong enough to make it out of the forest. As Kyoshi was inspecting Jack's knife wound and Phil was giving Ellen a small, loving hug, the girl leaned over to her newfound friend and murmured, "Do you want to see your brother again?"

The boy grinned and nodded.

Donovan was dead.

Jack was found.

Mew was safe.

They were alive.

Things were about to get worse.

OoO

"My Jolteon against your Nidoking, and…_checkmate_!" With a triumphant grin Miguel slammed the chess piece down on the board, rattling the pieces, and quickly swiped the bite-sized Nidoking figurine off the board. "I win again."

Bill looked mournfully down at his fallen Pokémon and sighed heavily, looking around the empty Pokémon Center. "Good on yourself, Miguel," he said dully, drumming his fingers on the card table. "I just wish Ellen and crew would get back soon. They've been gone for so long."

Miguel nodded, preoccupied with something else, and stood up, squinting out the huge glass windows of the center. He moved a bit closer to the window "Hey! I think they're back!"

"Really?" Bill joined his friend near the window and grinned widely, straightening the stiff collar of his jacket. He cocked his head a bit and stared out the window a bit longer, face turned into a frown. "Hmm…They have someone else with them…"

"Maybe Ellen finally found a boyfriend," Miguel said in a muffled voice, put his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing.

"I doubt it," Bill responded, and they both laughed. "She'd probably scare him away." He nodded at the door. "Want to go out and meet them?"

"Why not?"

And the two walked out.

OoO

Jack was bubbly with excitement. He couldn't keep still the entire boat ride, couldn't stop from squirming while he purchased a new green tee-shirt and khakis, couldn't stop from fidgeting while the Pokémon Center on Three Island bandaged up his knife wound, casting him strange looks as he explained over and over again that Team Rocket had attacked him in the Berry Forest.

Strangely, no one believed him. Especially the police.

It was very unnerving.

And as the group reached the Pokémon Center, the night a deep cold, Jack could clearly see the two friends appearing from the Pokécenter, and without further notice the wiry teen ran forward to finally meet his brother again.

"Heartwarming," Phil said sweetly, touching his fit to his chest. "I'm moved!"

The little Marshtomp settled down into the wet, grassy slope the group was standing on to watch the Miguel and Jack. First confusion, then disbelief, and finally tearful happiness. The two siblings were babbling rapidly to each other back and forth, telling their stories and sharing what each of them missed while they were parted.

And there were loving noogies.

Many loving noogies.

And the group smiled at Miguel and Jack, especially Bill who was utterly pleased with himself for bringing Ellen to the island. A bit later the two brothers came up to Ellen and crew to thank them over and over again, continuing on about how they couldn't thank her enough. Miguel informed them that they would be departing for the Anti-Trainer Meeting Place first thing tomorrow to spread the good news.

Then Miguel asked how it happened.

Ellen told him.

"Poor guy," the young man said, shaking his head slowly, "he didn't stand a chance in life."

It was harder for Ellen to say the same thing about Donovan, considering all the horrible things she had been through concerning the executive, but he did seem like a pathetic sort of creature, so she did give him a bit of credit for that. But she had other things on her mind: finding Jack, meeting with the Anti-Trainers again…the last badge, too. It was a night of mixed feelings, guns, death, and granola bars.

And finally Ellen did shake her head and muttered, "Poor freakin' guy."

But she still didn't believe that Donovan was a poor guy. In fact, he was a cruel and heartless criminal.

But I think our reader can disagree.

OoO

**Epilogue of the Chapter:**

**And the Fate of Donovan Jr…?**

Donovan Jr. was panicking, scuttling around Donovan's corpse and making small hacking and coughing noises. Technically the Pikachu didn't need oxygen, but he still inhaled and exhaled rapidly, sniffing the gun wound on his trainer's chest and neck. It never even crossed Donovan Jr.'s mind when it saw the pool of blood that it would attack the body and devour most of it; it just would _never_ do that to its own trainer.

The Pikachu emitted a raspy cough and whined, nudging Donovan's arm with his nose. He didn't move.

Of course he didn't move. He was dead.

Donovan Jr. coughed wildly again, but this time something rustled in the bushes in back of it. It whipped around, hissing, fangs bared, but all that showed itself was a small, red-haired girl in a filthy dress. The girl wailed with surprise when she saw the scene before her and quickly dissolved into frightened tears, stumbling backwards until she backed into a tree and tumbled to the ground.

_'brainsbrains trainer gone! Brainsbrains. girl brainsbrainsbrains…brains…lost' _Donovan Jr.'s mind wasn't the most organized, but it finally was able to comprehend that it was alone in a forest without protection. The Pikachu turned its head around almost 360 degrees to stare at Donovan one last time.

_'trainer gone leave brainsbrains leave brains girl gone lost brains'_

By the time Donovan Jr. had limped over to the little girl and cocked its head a bit, trying it's best to act like a normal Pikachu; the little girl had stopped crying and forgotten about the blood, the body, and the gun.

She whispered, in a seemingly timid voice, "Hi."

"Bllllaaaaaarrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhh," Donovan Jr. replied simply.

"I'm Lostelle."

"fffffflllllllllllllllluuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaa."

Lostelle stood up, brushed her dress off a bit and looked around. Then, she placed her fists at her hips. "Oh…I can't understand Pokémon…and this forest is so big with the scary Pokémon and…and the _body_, oh, gosh!" She sniffed again and scrunched up her face, bracing for a sob. Nothing came and she slowly relaxed. "But…we have a bigger problem…I'm lost. Oh, my mommy and daddy should have _never_ named me Lostelle!"

"Fblargh," the Pikachu said sympathetically, and the girl nodded briskly.

"You're right. We should try and find our way out. Come on, Pikachu! Let's go!"

Lostelle began to march away. Donovan Jr. blinked and looked at Donovan. The sad thing was the Pikachu's memory was so short-term that it was already forgetting the past events, even forgetting its trainer already.

_'brainsbrains…body…brains…BRAINS!'_

Before it could lunge at the corpse, Lostelle called it back and it sped off into the forest.

An hour later the two made it out of the forest well and intact. When they reached Two Island, Robert and his wife was overjoyed with their daughter's return. Lostelle gave all the credit to Donovan Jr., who modestly accepted the thanks with a series of gargles and shrieks due to stimulus of all the delicious, brainy meals creeping around the suburban area.

Lostelle's family adopted Donovan Jr. that day and it resided in the Game Corner for a while before a very curious occurrence occurred…

One day Lostelle was taking Donovan Jr. on its daily walk when it spotted another wild Pikachu parading about the area. The two Pikachu's eyes met and suddenly, as if all hell broke loose; it was love at first sight.

A year later, after Ellen's adventure was said and done, Donovan Jr. was extremely happy. _She_ was now the _mother_ of three baby Pichus, and comfortable with her newfound gender, changed her name to Doneeta.

OoO

Um…

Wow.

Yeah. This chapter took me a long time, but it was worth it. Believe me, when I first started writing this, killing off Donny never even crossed my mind. (In fact, I don't think Troy, Abby, Will, Phil, or Mew crossed my mind until a bit later.)

But, it had to happen.

This chapter was a bit gory, wasn't it! Well, I don't think it was, but I have a high tolerance for descriptive text, so I'm okay with that. But I don't know about _you_ guys… And tell me if I rushed to much with this chapter. Maybe it's just me, but what do _you_ guys think?

Well, until next chapter…adios, amigos. A very special chapter…tensions are high and unexpected meetings occur…

P.S- Oh yeah…and IddamSoyt…YOU GUESSED WRONG, HAHAHA! ONE OF ELLEN'S POKEMON DIDN'T DIE, YOU MISS. BIG NOSE ( :7 )! OH, BUUUURRRRRRNNNN! You did drugs with Elvis, haha! You like my fro, yo, bro? Hey, Iddam! Look under your parents' car! Look, it's a China Man! Yo no tango pantalonays!

(Ahem.) Sorry, inside jokes. Ignosce mihi. (It's 'excuse me' in Latin!)


	35. Too Stuborn

Hello all.

Read this chapter with suspicion.

Because when you think things are gonna turn out…

They Don't.

Right; I own all my characters; and satires such as: _Moondollars_, _Jim's Hard Lemonade, _and _Lemon _computers. I don't own Pokémon.

REVIEW!

OoO

Fiery Sapphire Ch.35

Too Stuborn

Final part of Realization

Ellen Adler was feeling very, very, bad.

The early morning sun practically blasted her in the face when she awoke at 8:30 on the dot, greeted by the dull throb of pain in various parts of her body. She squinted. The time on the islands were really tricky; night came at 5:00 A.M and morning opened up around 8:00 P.M. Well, a least she had a hotel room to herself; _one_ thing she could count on Bill for: luxury.

Ah, luxury. It didn't come easily for Ellen, especially when she had a limited amount of money; but the bed was huge and comfortable, the mini-kitchen had a supply of free food, and Bill was paying for it, so what did it matter?

Even the Pokémon had a room to themselves. Of course, the Anti-Trainer didn't have a clue how _that_ would turn out.

The girl finally rolled out of bed, dragging her feet against the carpet. She looked back at the clock. 8:35. Miguel would be coming around soon to pack up and get ready to go. But what could she do for a time being? Sleep? Nah, too late. So, what was the island like in the morning?

There were only two words to describe what Ellen felt.

Free time.

OoO

One Island in the morning was…interesting. The temperature had dropped into the forties, almost reaching the fifties, and various people trotted around in clothes, hats, and scarves, sitting on park benches or buying something from the local _Moondollars_, arguably the hottest coffee chain in Kanto.

Ellen clutched a tattered five dollar bill in her hand, looking about the island anxiously for a breakfast shop. _Moondollars_ was obviously out of the question; too expensive. It was strange to be walking around without a backpack for once, only a dirt-stained gray jacket, blue tee-shirt, a pair of jeans and some worn sneakers. People didn't shoot her any strange glances, though; she guessed it was normal to see trainers there, even if they were a little odd looking.

Her breakfast search hadn't been going that well when she reached the end of the island, a deserted little area situated on a rotting boardwalk. The only place she saw was a ratty, old deli, and she'd had enough with ratty places. The sea was particularly rough that day, and the deli was constantly getting beat by the waves. Sometime or other it would just go crashing down…

"Ellen! A-aye! E-Ellen!"

"Hey, Fiery!"

Ellen frowned and turned her head to see two figures running towards her, the slightly shorter, bouncier one clad in a large parka, the other a bomber jacket. Once the two figures had gotten close enough, the Anti-Trainer could see that it was Miguel and Jack, only cleaner and a bit healthier-looking than last night. Jack slowed down in his running and clutching his side, gulping for air, until he was in front of his friend and relaxed a bit, taking one more air break. Miguel patted him on the back.

"W-what's got _y-you_ up s-so e-early?" Jack gasped in his stutter, checking his watch. "It's o-only eight f-forty."

Miguel nudged him with his elbow. "Jack, _we're_ already up."

"R-right."

"So, have you been up long?" Miguel asked Ellen cheerily, smiling. He sounded a whole lot happier than the past months. "The Island is great. It's too bad we'll be leaving in a couple of hours. I'm surprised Jack even got up to go along with me."

The boy shrugged. The wind blew a sharp, cold gust. "O-okay, good p-point. B-but I'm an e-early r-riser, and I c-could use s-some s-society after s-sticking T-team Rocket for s-so l-long."

He _did_ have a point.

"You m-must be h-hungry t-too, r-right?" he continued to Ellen, stuffing his hands in his pockets and shivering a bit.

"Yeah…"

"O-obviously. A-anyone w-would be h-hungry after a d-day like y-yesterday. N-now, c-come on, t-that d-deli over t-there l-looks p-pretty g-good."

"For a person in Team Rocket," Ellen muttered finally.

Jack must have heard her, because he chuckled and shook his head. "No w-way. We u-used to g-go to _M-moondollars_."

"_Moondollars_!?" Ellen and Miguel exclaimed, looking at each other with terror.

"But…_Moondollars_ sells coffee for six bucks a pop," the girl said nervously, eyes widening. "If Team Rocket has that kind of money, think what else they could do! We're screwed!"

Jack stared at them both and suddenly burst into laughter, signifying his joke. The other two frowned; Miguel gave him a noogie and Ellen punched him on the arm.

The Anti-Trainer frowned as the walked into the deli, a surprisingly nice hole-in-the-wall despite its exterior. "Not. Funny," she growled, browsing through the various food-stuffs the deli had to offer. Urgh…everything was either a vegetable or a meat…eating had always been strange concept to Ellen. She couldn't eat a salad after talking to an Oddish. When her mom served hamburgers, she thought of the Militank she chatted with.

"I'll get some toast and Coke," she said weakly, slapping the five dollars down on the counter. Ignoring the questioning looks from her teammates; they all sat down at a table and exchanged glances. Not much was said, only a couple of bland remarks here and there.

An hour passed by, the three talking about trivial things for once, until Jack suddenly snapped up in his seat and slammed his hand on the table, his fork to clatter to the floor.

"Emerald!" he cried exuberantly, and several people looked up from their meals. He toned his voice down a bit to the radius of their table and whispered again, eyes checking back and forth before speaking, "E-emerald. I j-just r-remembered. That w-was my c-codename."

"It _is_ your codename," Miguel said, smiling at him. "No matter how long gone you were, you're still an Anti-Trainer all the way."

"That's the sappiest phrase I've ever heard," Ellen interjected crabbily, but did like it on the _inside_.

Jack looked uncertain for a minute and drummed his fingers on the table, letting his brother's comment sink in. Miguel slowly frowned as the boy sighed. "L-listen…a-after getting c-captured once, I'm a l-little h-hesitant g-getting back into the A-anti-Trainer t-thing again."

Silence.

"T-team R-rocket was b-bad," he continued, "they h-hated me t-there. I m-mean, when I f-first c-came…" he trailed off.

"You were surprised they didn't kill you?" Ellen guess, but Jack shook his head.

"N-no…Well, m-maybe…but they were l-looser t-two y-years ago. I d-dunno, maybe they w-wanted to use me as b-bait or s-something. Anyway, they were t-tough. I was g-getting b-beat up every w-week, maybe every o-other d-day. The o-other G-grunts _really_ h-hated me. I mean, I even h-had to go by a d-different n-name."

"What was it?"

"_56Blackjack2250_."

Miguel groaned. "Oh my God. His Direct Messaging name."

They three leaned closer in, until quite a lot of people where wondering what they were talking about.

Ellen bit her lower lip, thinking. "Did…did ya ever…meet…Giovanni?"

"Of course I did, Anti-Trainer," Jack snarled viciously, trying to mimic the Boss's sadistic speech. When the teen broke into giggles, Ellen and Miguel sat there, staring at him. Jack slowly calmed down, a worried look on his face. Why weren't they laughing…?

Miguel sighed. "You missed a lot."

"Yeah, dude, a _lot_," Ellen agreed, and began with the Celadon Game Corner.

OoO

"Oh, man, do I _love_ the smell of coffee in the morning!" Feolan exclaimed heartily, lapping up the pool of coffee from the hotel lobby floor. Charles creased his forehead and stared dejectedly at the broken coffee mug on the marble floor. Never…try and hold a coffee mug with a claw. First rule of being a Charizard.

Kyoshi sighed, letting her head fall. "I guess I'll clean it up… if you want…" she sulked away to find some cleaning implements, and Bill sighed along with her and shook his head, bracing himself for when the furious hotel manager appeared.

The Englishman racked his brain for a good explanation, but Ellen, Miguel, and Jack appeared again in the doorway, bundled up in winter wear but still shivering from the cold.

"Alright," Miguel said in a business-like tone, stopping at the front desk without even greeting Bill. From out of his pocket he pulled a map of the Kanto region and the Sevii Islands and opened it carefully, letting everyone else crowd around him. "So…oh, hey Bill. Hey Pokémon. Anyway, I'm thinking we can get to the Anti-Trainers the fastest by splitting up."

Bill leaned his elbow on the counter and regarded the map. "How so? I don't have any of my Pokémon with me, and Charles can only hold a certain weight. Did you bring any of your Pokémon, Miguel?"

He shook his head slowly, glasses bumping down to the bridge of his nose. "Well…maybe Ellen and her Pokémon can fly back. We three can take your boat, Bill."

"I c-can fly b-back," Jack put in eagerly.

Miguel turned back to look at his brother and shot a disbelieving glance at him. "You don't have any flying Pokémon with you!"

"S-sure I do. G-Gwen can c-carry me b-back; I'm l-light enough. And b-besides, she's a g-ghost. She can l-levitate."

"But can she levitate from here to Cerulean?" he asked, and smiled kindly when Jack sunk his head and shook it.

It was decided, and Miguel rolled up the map and entered it back into his coat pocket. After Bill checked out of the hotel, turning a bit pale when he saw the bill, the travelers abandoned the hotel and stood at the pier of One Island. Bill, Miguel, and Jack boarded the small, round-snout boat first and slowly floated away, the motor bubbling in the rough, dark water. Lastly, Ellen and crew took off; Charles claiming his wing was healed enough to fly, and the group left One Island.

Now, imagine this. If Jack had never been found, if Donovan had never died, if Gwen had never agreed with her trainer, and, most importantly, if Bill never invited the Anti-Trainer to the islands, Ellen Adler would be _dead_.

Of course, here's the real twist: even though Ellen would have met her doom if Bill had never come, she wouldn't be forced to endure the upcoming events, a month of complete nothingness, helplessness, and most importantly, unsuccessful DMing.

But I'm getting ahead of the story.

OoO

Giovanni had never felt so much rage.

Fiery Sapphire had _murdered_ one of his own executives.

It was useless to describe how simply _furious_ he was at Fiery Sapphire.

From the beginning, he had seen her as a passing trainer caught in the moment, another victim he would have Donovan exterminate. She was nothing more than a pathetic attempt of the fallen Anti-Trainers to regain their former strength over the region. Many had fallen before her under the force of Team Rocket. Why should she be any different?

But after Donovan's first failure; he had only spoken with him briefly about her; the pale, stupid teenager caught up in the awkward years of lanky, disjoined limbs, a craving for rebellion, and acne, all except without the acne. Fiery Sapphire didn't have a name yet, but she became a bit more important in Team Rocket's ranks; occasionally a Grunt would whisper about the 'Sickly Girl' to one of their comrades.

And then the Game Corner.

It was the first time she and Giovanni had been…'acquainted,' and the Boss could finally see for himself how insubstantial and pathetic she looked. It was odd. No matter how he changed his perspective, physically or mentally, he loathed her. But she wasn't the problem in Celadon. It was her Pokémon, that first time, the Mightyena who defeated _two_; count them, _two_ of his Pokémon. And then the Charmeleon. He still had the scars from where the lizard had slashed him across the shoulder…but, of course, Fiery Sapphire still had the scars from his Rhydon's slashes on her back. Ah, that was pleasurable. To see an Anti-Trainer suffer.

Silph Co., and Giovanni had seen her as one of the scientists, the blonde one…that is, until her hair dye washed out. And when she appeared in his office, ready for a fight…Giovanni would have been quite happy to rip her spine out. Actually, he would have been happy to do _anything_ to kill her. Strangulation. Torture. Gunshot. Knife wound. Internal bleeding. Anything.

And now. With Donovan dead and Troy, sobbing on his shoulder, still muttering about the Anti-Trainers, Giovanni reflected on all of these things. His sharp, dark features were still with thought. A small, sickening smile crept across his face; his eyes shone with malice, and he deducted a plan.

It was simple. He had been defeated so many times before because…why? Fiery Sapphire had _found_ him in a Team Rocket facility. By happenstance or by choice, she had appeared before him and demanded a battle. Well, suppose she couldn't find him?

Suppose he had…quite suddenly, disappeared? Where would she look, then? Of course, she would head straight for the Headquarters. And then…

'_Why are you so confident that you know what's going to happen_?' one of his thoughts whispered.

'_Oh,_' his other thoughts answered acidly, _'I've dealt with that kind of thinking before. Believe me.'_

'_Of course,_' a third hissed, and Giovanni could already imagine what the bitch would look like shot in the back of the head, bloodied up, and in the jaws of his Rhydon, bones and muscle breaking apart so feebly. Yes, that would be a sufficient death for _that_ species of Anti-Trainer. Ah, but reminiscence was coming back.

'_You can't jump to conclusions THAT fast. Even if the evidence does point straight to your guess,'_ his thoughts reminded him, and he nodded inwardly. Although that would be pleasant nostalgia.

So, he would leave his life for now to a place where Fiery Sapphire couldn't find him- maybe for a year, two years. And then he would attack, just when everything seemed alright. And they would be dead.

ALL DEAD.

FINALLY.

YES.

He had been waiting _twenty years_ for the moment when all of them were gone. Completely gone. But…he could wait for one more year…couldn't he? Ah, yes, Giovanni was a master of self control!

Troy wiped her rapidly tearing eyes and turned away to fool with her glasses, then returning to his shoulder to drape her head upon him.

"Troy," he said finally, his calm voice breaking up, "I've decided to give up looking for the Anti-Trainers for a bit."

For some odd reason beyond his explanation, Troy suddenly shot up from his shoulder, grinning, and cried: "Really!? Oh, wonderful choice, Gi-Gi! It's off to Dewford Island, then! Vacation!"

"No."

She faltered and peered at him, eyes tearing up again. "Um…what?"

"I said, NO. I'm going into…hiding," he said softly, but quickly added, "But only for a short time."

Troy gasped and clung onto him tightly, staring up at the Boss with fear. "What? You're…you're not serious. You're _hiding_ from the Anti-Trainers, aren't you!? Oh God, Giovanni!"

"_IT'S NOT LIKE THAT_," he roared, prying her off of him. The woman curled back against the arm of the couch and lowered her eyes to the ground. Giovanni didn't notice this time. "Don't you _dare_ accuse me of being a coward like Red. It's already enough that you come to _me_ for condolences when you _should_ be taking Donovan's files off the records."

"_CONDOLENCES_!?" she screamed back at him, viciously leaning forward, nails extended like claws. "I COME HERE EVERY GODDAMED DAY, GIOVANNI, AND NOT JUST FOR _YOU_. FOR TEAM ROCKET."

"WELL, ISN'T THAT FUNNY, TROY, BECAUSE _I_ WAS THE ONE WHO _BEGAN TEAM ROCKET_!"

Glaring, Troy suddenly shot up and walked out of the room, pulling something from her pocket and tossing it across the floor with askance. Giovanni's gun. The gun he had engraved with his first initial, the pistol he had acquired so many years ago. How many lives has he taken with that weapon?

He stared at it for a bit before sighing and standing up, walking out of the room. After many gifts, kisses, gifts, more gifts, and a bit of provocative flirtation, the two make up with each other again and Troy finally agreed with the Boss's plan, no matter how 'eccentric,' it was, she admitted.

Ah, but that was the beauty of it! Only a brilliant mind could conjure up something so completely perfect for their enemy; a mouse cornered by a snake.

A plan to rid Team Rocket of the Anti-Trainers.

Especially Fiery Sapphire.

Perfect.

Oh.

Wait.

But the necklace was a problem.

OoO

Roughly one-hundred and fifty miles into the mainland of Kanto, our heroes were having a much better day.

When they entered the Anti-Trainer Hideout, it certainly had changed since the first time Ellen had walked into it; crowded with ratty furniture, peeling walls, and a general sort of disarray. Now it seemed that Ellen had brought with her not only a hope for the Anti-Trainers but some better taste and function in furniture as well. There was just two new couches, huge, tawny, behemoths, and on the left side of the room stood a desk displaying a new _Lemon_ computer. Directly next to the desk was a large bookshelf, containing all sorts of books from a small paper manuscript named _The Rule Book of Anti-Trainers_ (Russell's) to _The Cause of Cardiovascular Synthesis on Schizophrenic Lapras_ (Miguel's, obviously,) to _100,000,000,000,000 Beauty Tips while Staying Sober_ (Marylyn's), to _The Cretin's Guide to Humus_ (Um…Samara's?) There were other various books, some that didn't make any sense at all like _Road Kill_, but there were others that looked interesting to Ellen such as _Fist Fighting: Because Sissy Fights won't Get you Anywhere_.

The Anti-Trainers even looked better, maybe because Ellen had called them before and shared the good news. Russell had a cheerful expression on his face and appeared to have been stress free the entire day, Samara looked pensive for a bit, smiling, and Marylyn was even sober.

"_Weeeeeelllll, FFFiiiieeerrrryyyyy SSSaaaaapppphhhhiiiirrrreeee_," Marylyn said, drawing her words out for quite a while. She smiled, her stance wavered a bit, and she sunk back into the couch.

Okay, maybe not so sober.

Russell patted his teammate on the back and said gruffly: "Sober up, Crystal. Don't make Emerald scared of you or anything."

Jack smiled painfully at Marylyn and muttered to Ellen as a side note: "I t-think she a-already h-has."

Ellen sniggered.

"Anyway," Red turned to Jack, Ellen, and Miguel, scratching the back of his head of dark hair, "tell me all about it. I want to hear _everything_. And no leaving out gruesome parts. Right, Fiery?"

The girl frowned at him and grumbled.

Nevertheless, Ellen began telling them about it, being blunt and indirect as she usually was. Russell was about to stop her when Jack suddenly burst in and stuttered out the whole ordeal, from the time he found Ellen to when Miguel and he were reunited. He was quite a good story teller, except for the part where he decided to pull up his shirt and show everyone his knife wound.

"Well, _I _though it was cool," Phil said, comforting Jack as Marylyn ran off to vomit somewhere and Russell groaned with disbelief.

"But Donovan is dead, right?" Red asked again, comforting himself with the fact. He shuffled to the edge of his seat. "He's gone. Through."

"Yeah," Ellen said.

"Troy s-shot h-him," Jack added, kicking his feet up on the arm of the chair, unaware that he was sticking his feet in Ellen's face. The girl pushed his feet away and he _plunked_ on the ground, bursting into laughter.

"I s-surrender." The teen waved his hands in the air, mimicking a white flag.

The girl sniggered and flipped him off. "Man, you _suck_ at being an Anti-Trainer."

"W-well." He suddenly calmed and sat up, blinking at her with such seriousness. "That's w-why I'm not b-being one a-anymore."

"_WHAT_!?" Russell yelled, eyes popping open, totally forgetting about Donovan, "Not being an Anti-Trainer!? Emerald! Being an Anti-Trainer is a life-long commitment! Remember: Once an Anti-Trainer, always an Anti-Trainer."

Jack shook his head fiercely, anxiously. "L-listen, you d-don't u-understand. I s-spent y-years b-basically l-living with T-team Rocket. It. W-wasn't. Fun," he growled, gritting his teeth. They had never seen him this upset, save for back in the forest. "I d-don't w-want that to h-happen a-again."

"But…it won't," Marylyn added.

"H-how do you k-know? As f-far as I can s-see, a-anything could h-happen. I j-just w-want to s-stay l-low for a w-while. Even E-ellen w-will vouch for m-me, r-right Ellen?"

"Uh…," Ellen said.

"R-right. See? She k-knows w-what she's t-talking a-about."

The older Anti-Trainers exchanged unsure mumblings and mutterings, and Jack sighed and stood up, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "C-come on, Ellen," he said grumpily, making a beeline for the exit, "let's w-wait o-outside."

The Anti-Trainer was unsure if she should follow him, but Feolan pushed her along and she eventually gave way and walked out into the sunlight, sitting down next to Jack on the grass.

"H-how do y-you d-do it?" he asked once she had planted herself down on the green turf. "I m-mean, how do y-you stay an A-anti-Trainer for so l-long? I can't b-believe you're an A-anti-Trainer s-still, with a-all that you've b-been t-through."

She shrugged and said: "I dunno."

"N-nice a-answer," he said, chuckling.

Nothing much was said for the three minutes that spanned the time they sat, only a small conversation here and there.

As Jack was about to get up, Miguel appeared in the doorway, rubbing the back of his head. His glasses were low on his nose. "Hi guys. Listen, Jack, we all decided that you can leave."

Jack slowly sat down again and turned to his brother, lips slowly turning up in a smile. "R-really? Oh, that's g-good. I was g-going to c-catch a t-train to J-jhoto if you didn't l-let me l-leave, so I-I g-guess it w-works out b-better this w-way. R-right, and I w-want a g-going-away p-party."

"You're serious."

"Y-yes," he said, brightening.

Miguel threw his hands in the air and shook his head, plopping down next to his brother. "This is crazy. We'll have to go buy some food or something."

"Then _g-go_."

"Spoiled," Gold spat at his brother.

"N-nerdy."

"Shrimp."

"U-ugly."

"Fat."

"Glasses."

The Anti-Trainer rolled his eyes and walked back inside, leaving the group to snicker.

"Always gets him, I bet," Charles said, mustering a smile. He gently touched his injured wing with his claw to make sure it was doing alright. "Wait…if the Anti-Trainers need to go shopping, then…who's going?"

They all looked at each other.

A giant gust of wind rushed past them and the group erupted into screams, ducking down on the ground. Far above them Marylyn was waving, flying on her crazed Alteria.

"It figures," Kyoshi groaned.

OoO

Marylyn did enjoy grocery shopping. It had a calming sort of element to it, whether it was the bread aisle or the fruit counter, the Viridian City Grocery was a nice place.

'_Now_,' Marylyn thought, resisting the urge to buy a large bottle of _Jim's Hard Lemonade_, '_what kind of things do you buy for a party?_'

Pizza, of course. The woman revved up the grocery cart and sped through the aisles, pushing through crowds of working parents, collage students, and little children. She was a woman on a mission. The objective: GET. FOOD.

Within minutes the frozen pizza was safely in her cart and she ran off to find packs of soda, potato chips, and those tasty little hot dog things that she couldn't place a name on at the moment.

Oh well.

Singing _My Humps_ to herself as she kept a sharp eye out for paper plates, she almost ran over a fat, ugly, little girl wobbling around the area. Hundreds of beginning Pokémon trainers crowded the area, making it almost impossible to move along without running into a little boy holding a Bulbasaur or a little girl clutching a Squirtle. Marylyn shook her head at them, sympathetic. Poor kids. They didn't know that a third of them would be attacked, kidnapped, and strangled by Team Rocket.

Unless Ellen succeeded in time…

"My Humps, my humps, my humps, my humps! You love my lady lumps. My humps, my humps, my humps. Check it out!"

"Uhh, m'am?" A worker shuffled up to her and smiled uneasily. "Anything I can…er…help you with?"

"I drive these brothers crazy, I do it on the daily, they treat me really nice and they- Oh, yes! Paper plates, please."

The man pointed to the left and she piped a thank you, merrily skipping off to find the paper plates.

Sorry, but I need to break off for a minute and tell you reader something.

Of course, the story _Fiery Sapphire_ is known for its utter stupidity, oh-shit irony, creepy antagonists, and lame occurrences, so what would the story be without an unbelievably lame occurrence that twisted the story to no extent?

As Marylyn was just about the reach the paper plates, her hand extended like a talon, another woman appeared and whisked them off the shelf, dropping them in her basket. The Anti-Trainer's blood boiled and she muttered curses under her breath, clenching the handle of the cart with bone-white knuckles.

Who _was _that broad? No one could do _that_ to her, Marylyn! Her daddy used to own all the pineapples in Celadon City!

"_Excuse meeee_," she sang, but stopped suddenly, furrowing her plucked eyebrows. The woman looked familiar to her, but she could quite place the name…

The woman was on the taller side, dressed in a long jean skirt and green sweater. Her hair was dark, but her eyes were a grayish color, not quite blue and not quite gray. She looked up at Marylyn; one eyebrow raised, and upturned her mouth in a frown.

And then it clicked.

"_MARYLYN_!" Fredia Adler screamed, throwing her hands in the air.

"_FREDIA_!" Marylyn screamed, doing the same. "What are _you_ doing here, _dah-ling_? I haven't seen you for _ages_!"

"Oh, just shopping for myself…" the mother sighed loftily and smoothed down her hair, looking wistfully away. "Oh, wow. It's great to see you again. So, what've _you_ been up to?"

She shrugged. "Oh, the usual. Russell's still a grump." They both giggled.

"So," Fredia said slowly, "that means you're still an Anti-Trainer, right?"

Marylyn smiled. "I'm getting old, aren't I?"

"Nah! I'm older than you now, probably! What with all these gray hairs springing up…" Fredia picked a strand of hair and let in fall on her face, blowing it out of the way again. "Well, gray hairs usually do come with children…"

"Oh!" The Anti-Trainer's eyebrows almost jumped with surprise. How strange. Her grinned faltered and slowly turned to a small grimace. "You have _children_? You never told me that, dear!"

"Well, I do," she said brightly, realizing a sigh. "Actually, she's a trainer now. Doesn't really call me that much…actually, never called me at all. I'm a little worried."

Marylyn put her hand on Fredia's shoulder as a comforting gesture. What kind of daughter would do that? And Team Rocket could have already done her in! How incongruous. "I'm _SO_ sorry! Is there anything I can do for _youuuu_?"

"Thanks, but no. Just keep Kanto safe for me."

"Absolutely_, dah-ling_! We're doing a _wonderful_ job! A girl is helping us out _so_ much. She's a spirited Anti-Trainer, I'll give her that."

"Really?" Fredia nodded, folding her hands together. It was nice to hear the Anti-Trainers were still out there and recruiting new members. It really gave a new light to Kanto. "What's her name?"

"Ellen," the other woman said.

The mother nodded slowly, mulling it over. "Hm. My daughter's name is Ellen. Ellen Adler. Interesting." Marylyn could see that there was a bit of complicated thinking going on in Fredia; she asked nonchalantly, browsing over the food items: "So, what's…Ellen like?"

"A spitfire! She's really quite spirited. Very pale, bony, frail, brown hair…gray eyes…PSD…"

The longer Marylyn spoke of Ellen, the more and more curious the women became. By the end of her description the two were staring at each other; Freida's eyes popped up to extremes.

The Anti-Trainer choked on her words as she looked at Fredia. "Ohhh…"

"No." Fredia put her hand to her mouth and shook her head disbelievingly. "Marylyn…are you telling me…_my daughter_ is a…a…_Anti-Trainer_?" She continued to shake her head, frowning hard. "No…no. Don't tell me she's an Anti-Trainer. What if it's a coincidence? Maybe it's just another Ellen…"

"_Dah-ling_," the black-haired woman said slowly, "I…I think she's an Anti-Trainer." she bit her lower lip. She added, "and, God, Fredia, she's a damn good one at that."

"Is _that _why she hasn't called me?" Fredia asked nervously, wringing her hands. "Was she trying to keep it a secret? Wha…_IS SHE ALRIGHT_!?"

"Oh, calm _down_! Fredia, this is a very tense situation we have right now. Ellen, why…" she let his sentence drop. She couldn't say Ellen was perfectly fine, could she? All those battles…all those scars…

"Is she alright?" she asked again.

"Yyyyyeeeeeeennnnoooo," Marylyn grumbled.

"I _need_ to see her," Fredia said suddenly, grabbing her friend's shoulders. "I haven't communicated or seen her for four months now, for God's sake." She wrung her hands fearfully and looked at Marylyn with such terror that the woman couldn't refuse.

"Here; Alteria can take us."

"…No, wait. I have a car."

And from that point on Ellen would fall even lower and lower into a deep, dark, hole until she hit rock bottom; or, in Fiery Sapphire terms, the Center of the Earth.

OoO

"Russell," Marylyn called a bit shakily, peeking her head through the doorway, "I need to talk to you _outside_. There's…um…_ohgod_…some _surprising_ news." She stared at Ellen, scrutinizing her for a bit, and shook her head. "And you too, Ellen."

"Coming, coming…_stupid grocery bags,_" he muttered under his breath, but nevertheless stood up and walked outside.

"Okay, bag lady," Feolan joked, pushing his muzzle at Ellen, "get outa here."

"What? You guys gotta help me out!" Ellen exclaimed, jumping up off the overstuffed couch. She dusted her ragged jeans off.

"I vote Charles, he's the fattest." The Mightyena pointed at the Charizard, who frowned.

"Hey. I'm not fat, I'm just big boned. But I'll help, sure."

"Me too," Kyoshi said, stepping up.

"Yah man," Phil gargled.

Feolan mumbled but nevertheless stepped up.

"_Uh…ELLEN_? You need to come out…_really soon_…" For some reason Russell's voice sounded different, it was shivering and reedy. His normal boom wasn't there and his sentence drifted off as the girl stepped out with her Pokémon and regarded the sight before her.

Russell was standing the closest to her. He looked shocked for some reason and was staring at her, awe struck. She raised her eyebrow at him and prepared to flip him off, but something made her stop. Or, more like, some_one_ make her stop.

"Ellen."

The girl frowned and turned around. The voice sounded familiar… Her eyes popped open when she saw Fredia Adler, her own mother, standing right in front of her. "Mom!" she choked out, grinning. Though surprised, she was happy to see her parent. "Mom! Wow, you're really he-"

"_Yes_," she said sharply, cutting her off. The mother's face turned grave as she put her hands on her daughter's shoulders and looked at her, whispering: "Why didn't you tell me?"

"…Tell you what?" Ellen questioned nervously.

"_THAT YOU WERE AN ANTI-TRAINER_!" Fredia cried, shaking Ellen's shoulders so harshly that the girl stumbled back a bit. The woman bit her lower lip and looked away, shaking her head. "God, I thought you were safe being a trainer, Ellen."

Fiery Sapphire emitted a small noise of hesitation. How…how did she find out…? "Wha…what do _you_ know about Anti-Trainers?" This was to confusing. And just at the last minute! Just at the last badge! No!

"Oh, I know more than you think," she said in a low, shaking voice. Her eyes were forming little tears, and she hugged her daughter tightly, shaking her head again. "Oh God, oh God." Fredia sniffled a little bit and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. "I…I just can't say how _scared_ I was when I heard about you…"

"Mom, I'm fine."

"No one is '_fine'_ when they're an Anti-Trainer."

Ellen stomped her foot on the ground, irritated. "Listen. If you know so much about Anti-Trainers, than why don't you just get the hell over with it and tell me?"

Her mother stared at her darkly. "When we get home."

"Home? But…mom. I'm staying here with Jack for a while. And then I'll get the Last Badge, and I'll defeat the Elite Four, and…"

Suddenly, the woman released a cry of frustration and looked down, in tears again. Not sad tears, though. Angry tears. "Don't you get it, Ellen? You're not staying here anymore! I'm taking you back home. You're not an Anti-Trainer anymore. You're my daughter, Ellen Adler."

There was a moment of numb understanding before Ellen finally understood what the woman was saying. She stumbled back from her, closer to Russell and Marylyn, and yelled: "You can take me back! You can't do _that_! I'M STAYING HERE!"

"WHY CAN'T YOU GO ALONG WITH THINGS FOR ONCE!?" her mother shot back, throwing her tissue on the ground. "WHY ARE YOU SO REBELLIOUS? YOU'RE SO DAMN STUBORN!"

Something triggered a painful memory in Ellen's mind. Her thoughts flitted back to the Celadon Game Corner, and she lowered her eyes to the ground…

'_Ellen's head was pounding, and through the murky sense of pain Giovanni commented something to the effect of, "Give in, you bitch. Die. Die for God's sake. You should be dead by now."_

"_BASTARD!" she screamed at him, and returned to sobbing._

"_THIS IS WHY THE ANTI-TRAINERS HAVE DISAPEARED!" Giovanni roared back, but didn't move. "YOU'RE TOO AGGRESSIVE! TOO STUBORN! TOO REBELLIOUS! THAT WAS YOUR DOWNFALL!"'_

Too Aggressive. Too Stubborn. Her mom was taking her back. She was no longer an Anti-Trainer. She didn't have a purpose, didn't have a _life_.

Was _that_ her downfall?

"That's what Giovanni said," Ellen muttered, and suddenly she screamed fiercely, "_THAT'S WHAT GIOVANNI SAID_!"

Fredia Alder burst into tears.

Russell finally spoke up and turned to Ellen. The expression on his face was confusing; it was a mix of pleading and obscurity. Never before had Red actually looked so _helpless_. "Ellen," he mumbled, putting his metal hand on her shoulder, "don't do this to Fredia. Go with her. We'll come over later."

"I thought you were on my side," the young Anti-Trainer hissed.

"I…am."

"Then…what the hell are you talking about? Russ, how did my mom know you guys?"

He said nothing, until Ellen suddenly cried with fury and pulled out her necklace, the dented, worn FS. "OKAY, RUSS. CUT THIS CRAP. YOU KNOW SOMETHING. _WHAT IS IT_!? DO YOU _KNOW_ WHAT THIS NECKLACE MEANS? MOM? DO _YOU_?"

She turned to her mother who only shook her head, offering nothing.

"Go," Russell sighed, turning away from her to enter the Anti-Trainer hideout. He moved Jack and Marylyn out of the way and closed the door, leaving Ellen alone with Fredia.

"You need to come back," she said softly. "You and your Pokémon."

"Okay," she said quietly.

Fredia put her arm around Ellen's shoulders and led her back to the car, the Pokémon following behind. They each looked at each other, fearful for what was to come, and Ellen kept her eyes focused on the ground, her dull mind whirling and buzzing furiously. Nothing made sense anymore. No one was answering her.

"Charles," she whispered to her Charizard, "Do you think-"

"Not right now," he answered back. "We'll talk at your house."

Not even Charles was answering her.

And Ellen opened the car door and slid into the front seat, her Pokémon piling into the back without even the slightest disagreement. Fredia started up the engine of the car and pulled onto the highway. Russell and Marylyn watched the navy car speed away, their faces glued in awe-struck expressions.

"Did _you_ know?" the woman asked her teammate.

Russell shrugged and walked away. "Sometimes."

OoO

Never expected that, did you? Well, I hope this wasn't an annoyingly stupid filler chapter, because it _was_ quite important. And, hey, Ellen's mom _REALIZED! Ahahaha!_

And you know what? I bet Iddamsoyt is going to say: "Myess…Flameboo, that was one of your stranger chapters…"

Happy Halloween.

See you next chapter.

REVIEW!


	36. Cadence

Hello there. I'd like to welcome you to another chapter of Fiery Sapphire.

I have nothing to say, only that this chapter is full of questions answered and questions asked, people found and people lost.

I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please drop by a review if not to busy. Oh, and I don't own a quote from Stephen King, and I don't own a lot of other things. But I do own my characters.

OoO

Fiery Sapphire 36

Cadence

"You met Giovanni."

Fredia Adler's eyes were bloodshot from shedding so many tears, and yet her eyes were set on the road, squinting down the narrow Pallet Town road with uncanny concentration.

Sitting in the front seat beside her, Ellen momentarily went through a spasm of panic, surprise, and curiosity; and all of those together certainly didn't mix well.

"No," the girl lied.

"Oh, don't play naive with me," Fredia snapped suddenly, flashing her daughter a seething glare which made even the huge Charizard cramped in the back wince. "I can already see it on your face. You're lying, and you're lying because you want to throw yourself back into another dangerous job, don't you?"

Ellen opened her mouth to say something, but quickly closed it. Bull's-eye.

"So," the mother continued, taking her finger to dab neatly at the corner of her eye. "You met him. Boss of Team Rocket. _Slaughterer. Fascist Pig!_" She beat her fist on the steering wheel and blasted the horn at some idiot who maneuvered their car in front of them. Fredia shakily caught her daughter's arm with her hand and patted it reassuringly. "Sorry, sorry. I just can't imagine what happened to you during your mission…"

"We could tell you about it, if you'd like," Kyoshi mewed politely from the back seat, but Fredia smiled at her, only hearing a few small meows.

"Forget it," the girl growled to the Persian. Itching to have some questions answered, Ellen cleared her throat loudly and asked, "Um, mom. I think you were gonna tell me how you knew the Anti-Trainers. And since we're home…" the teen gestured to her house with its brick exterior and gray-slate roof, surrounded by a chain fence.

"I guess I should tell you a bit, huh?" Carefully, the woman terminated the car engine and placed her hands in her lap, spreading out her fingers and examining the rosy nail polish on her nails. "Well…I admit that I've lied to you a bit through the years…"

"So it would seem," Charles grunted.

"But Kaden and I just wanted to protect you, that's all," Fredia put in quickly, looking at her daughter with earnest concern.

Ellen stopped her suddenly, a sense of dread crawling up against her. "'Kaden and I'?"

"Yes. Kaden and I. I mean, your dad and me. Before you were born, we decided to not get you involved in this fight. Hon, that's why I was _so, so_ worried when I found about you. _We_ were Anti-Trainers. It's not a newfound thing, Ellen. I…just…it's _dangerous_, for God's sake. You could have _died_."

The ex-Anti-Trainer sunk a bit in her car seat. She wanted to vomit. The pounding inside her head, the despondent lead of her heart accumulated with the simple words of 'Kaden and I.' Her _parents_ were Anti-Trainers?

Holy _shit_.

Fredia looked concerned for a moment at the state of her daughter- her bony form had grown even thinner from lack of nutrition on her journey, her eyes were a bit sunken, and for the first time the mother noticed the tiny pinkish scar near Ellen's scalp and the piece of bandage sticking out from beneath her shirt sleeve.

She fretted momentarily, her heart quickened when she noticed her 'baby' was injured. The mother swallowed, her head bobbing a bit. What could have happened to her? How a younger Fredia had imagined herself returning to the Anti-Trainer base looking like that. Of course, it never happened. Kaden had just been so _protective_!

"Ellen, I-," Fredia began, but the teenager shook her head and opened the car door, setting her feet to the ground.

"I don't feel so good," Ellen mumbled thickly. She beckoned her Pokémon to come with her. Charles and Kyoshi glanced at each other, concerned, while Feolan didn't seem to notice. Phil looked thoughtful.

"You'll need to the keys to the house," Fredia called, waving the keys about in her raised hand. She tossed them to the girl and she swiped them out of the air, not even stopping to blink. The mother looked taken aback. Her reflexes were amazing compared to what they were before.

The girl twisted her face into a pained frown, whisked through the small, cozy, foyer, and slunk up the steps, legs shaking. Her physical condition has decreased greatly in a small amount of time; it was as if the mention of 'Kaden' and the 'Anti-Trainers' together brought back all the scars and pains of the abuse she went through from The Game Corner to the Berry Forest.

"Well, I'll say that was sufficiently awkward," Charles said, earning a tired glare from Ellen. He shook his head and surveyed Ellen's bedroom. It was quite small; four walls closing in around them; a single window facing the neighbor's house. A bed stood in the corner, while an old, _Macrohard_ computer rested on a desk. Various other furniture lay about.

"Well," he continued, "did you have any idea that both your parents were involved in the Anti-Trainers? I mean, this is shocking…this is…unbelievable. Think of it! And we didn't even know."

"I think I was better off without knowing," Ellen groaned, sitting cross-legged on her lumpy bed. The covers held a faint smell of rot. Ew. The girl propped her head into the crook of her knees and sighed, rapping her arms around her shins. The open window brought a soft chill into the room.

Kyoshi sighed and hopped up on the bed also, digging her claws into the soft comforter on the top. She circled the area a bit and finally curled up. "I just wish you could have listened longer, Ellen," she mumbled, looking up at her. "You couldn't just walk out like that."

"I…I just sorta had the feeling that…that…" she sighed. "I don't know; talking about my dad makes me sad."

The Marshtomp shook his head in his infant-like way and made a small _tsk-tsk_ noise. "Don't go angsty on us!"

"There's a _difference_," she spat.

Feolan, checking behind him to see if anyone was listening besides the group, leaned forward and muttered, "We could try running away if you want…"

The ex-Anti-Trainer raised one of her thin eyebrows. "Huh?"

"I'd be pretty easy to get Charles to fly us to the Viridian City Gym. We could do it at night- no one would notice until the morning after…"

"Feolan!" The Persian stared at him, horrified, and whacked him with her paw. "Think about Fredia! She would be worried sick! We might as well stay here until we coax her to let us go."

"There's nothing stopping us," Feolan pointed out.

Kyoshi shot him 'the look.' "Besides curiosity."

"Curiosity killed the Meowth."

"_Feolan_!" the Persian cried, throwing her paws up in the air.

Charles creased his forehead with thought and swallowed, trying to change the subject. "We could…try and drag some answers out of Russell when he comes over."

"Like _that_ would get us anywhere," the teenager sighed.

The group sat around for a bit, none of them feeling up to the challenge of doing anything, besides Ellen tidying herself up and changing into a camisole and a pair of jeans. Even though she felt much better to be clean again, she was still sick with thought. What had her parents done in the Anti-Trainer group? What about her dad? What did _he_ have anything to do with it?

The topic of her father had always been a delicate, untouchable one, especially in Fuchsia City. When Kaden walked out the door and left one day, the city burst into a sense of hatred towards Fredia and Ellen, the working-class mother and her tiny little five-year old. What? A single mother with a little girl? Father walked out on them? Didn't want the responsibility…? Ah, yes. How pathetic.

The girl shut out the negative thoughts that plagued her and slammed a pillow over her face, groaning. Her father had loved her…right? They…wanted to have her, right? She wasn't a…mistake…Of course, they were married!

…Right?

'_Stop screwing with yourself! Yeah, they were married! They had the freaking ring_! _Stop being paranoid_.'

"Damn straight," she muttered under her breath; Charles cocking his eyebrow at her. The girl smiled. At least her Pokémon were on her side.

Moments later, there was a small knock on the door and a voice asking, "Ellen? Yeh there? It's Brendan!"

Ellen slowly rose from her lying position, frowning. Brendan…? The stout, pudgy teenager with his white hair and strangely vast knowledge? There was another knock, and the girl jumped off her bed and scuttled over to the door. When she opened it, she gasped.

Brendan was Brendan Birch, but it seemed that puberty had kicked in. Despite him being the exact same as he was in Silph Co, he was wearing an impeccable lab coat over a graphic tee-shirt with _The Byrds_ written on it and a pair of jeans. What was most surprising about him was his _chin_. Little red hairs were sprouting from his chin, and from the looks of it he had been working on a small goatee for quite some time now. The combination of the white hair and slight red goatee was so strange that Feolan burst out laughing- he squirmed on the floor, cackling like mad.

"Long time no see," Brendan said in his feminine, slightly lisped voice, offering Ellen a friendly smirk. He leaned on the doorframe, smiling, and out of his pocket produced a thick batch of papers. Typed on the front was the plain text _In Cold Blood_. "Since your back, I just wan-"

"How _did_ you know I was back?" Ellen asked suspiciously, close to grinning. Despite his annoying voice and habits, Brendan had always stuck beside her through thick and thin. Why, he worked for Team Rocket for a bit just to get the ex-Anti-Trainer up to the twelfth floor!

The white-haired boy looked guilty for a moment. "Um…I don't spy out my window!" He paused. "Okay…maybe I do. But I saw you in the car, so I wanted to see if you wanted to come over for dinner. You can read my manuscript, too! I finally found a plot for _In Cold Blood_. It's about this family called the Winstrates in Hoenn."

"And how they all got brutally murdered, right?" the teen questioned sarcastically, crossing her arms.

"Um, yeh. You're right! How did you know?"

"I'm Physic," she muttered, pushing past him. "But, yeah, I'll go to your house…" The Pokémon shuffled behind her, and the pudgy boy grinned provocatively at Charles and wiggled his white eyebrows.

"I'm ignoring you," the Charizard muttered, moving closer to Ellen.

The Anti-Trainers were in the living room when they reached downstairs.

Even when she entered the living room; the Anti-Trainers sitting on the couches had a certain gloomy air about them, and the teenager already felt another sense of depression creeping over her. Russell and Marylyn looked broken, staring at the girl with dreary eyes. Miguel was a bit cheerier; he offered her a small wave, while Samara nodded at her. Jack was nowhere to be found.

Brendan looked surprised when he saw the group and raised his eyebrows, bringing a hand to his mouth. "Whoa! Company! Guess I'll be going then…Sorry, Ellen…" He snapped his fingers and pointed at the ex-Anti-Trainer, grinning. The boy turned on his heel, orange Converses squeaking, and prepared to walk out the door.

The ex-Anti-Trainer took one look at the company and yelled, "Brendan! Wait! I wanna come to your house!" After speaking with Fredia she didn't want to undergo another sickening transgression of futility.

"_Ellen_! I thought we were going to ask Russell some questions," Charles hissed in her ear, his breath singing a bit of her hair. "This is how we're going to get all the answers! You can't run away from _every little thing_."

"Damn, Charles!" Ellen muttered back to him. "You know what? I'll ask them all something. I'll do it right now, and then we get the hell to Brendan's house."

Fredia opened her mouth to say something, but her daughter beat her to it. The teenager walked into the small sitting area and saddened a bit, seeing all the battles and journeys she had slaved over come down to this. Would it end with her trapped inside her own house, weak under her mother's dominant rule? Although she still had her doubts; this was a much better way to end if it ever ended. The latter, most likely, would be dieing under the hand of a Team Rocket member. It could come down to two things. She could be stuck in the general cadence of everyday, or she could be butchered and called a martyr. But martyrs were still dead.

She couldn't speak. The only thing that came out of her mouth was a quiet, weak question. "Why didn't you guys tell me about my dad?"

Marylyn spoke first. "You couldn't expect us to _know_!" she burst out desperately. "Please don't be angry. Really."

"You could have guessed," Ellen returned, crossing her arms defiantly. Her fervor was back. "You've got explaining to do."

"So do you," Fredia pointed out coldly, leaning back on the couch. "You need to tell me about your journey."

No! Fredia would _die_ if she told her what happened! "Have _them_ tell you about it." She jerked her head at the Anti-Trainers. "I'm going to Brendan's house."

Fredia frowned. "You're staying here and talking to me."

"I'm going to Brendan's," Ellen said coldly, and to emphasize yanked open the front door, Brendan inching out nervously. "Bye. I'll be back later." She turned on her heel, facing her back towards them.

A mistake.

It was then that Fredia understood the full blow of her daughter's fight against Team Rocket. It wasn't just child's play- Team Rocket was ready to do _anything_ to destroy the Anti-Trainers. The cold-hearted bastards would do horrifying things to Anti-Trainers.

Ellen's back was full of splotches of bright, clean pink and white spread across her bones, spider-cracks of faint red crawled across her spine. Odd lumps and blisters punctured her skin, and the back of her camisole top was low enough to display scars visible on the middle of her spine.

The mother put her hand to her mouth and uttered a sharp intake of breath. "Oh, Mew, oh Mew…Ellen…what happened…?"

The girl whipped around, biting her lower lip. _Stupid, stupid idea with the camisole_! "Red'll tell you. He's on my side."

Fredia and Ellen both looked at Russell; the man sighed and looked down at his hands, thinking hard. He sat like that for a bit until he turned to the teenager, a miserable expression on his face. "Fier- _Ellen_. You're not on your own anymore. You need to do what your mother says. It for the best…really."

"Why? Why is it for the best? You know what? I'd rather be in the Team Rocket HQ than here."

"_You can't SAY that_," Russell shouted suddenly, leaning forward in his chair. His expression turned fervent, face in a frown. "Don't _say_ that! You're going to do what Fredia tells you and _stay the hell in the house_!"

"Oh!" Ellen exclaimed sarcastically, raising her eyebrows. "Since you're, like, the Leader of the Anti-Trainers, you can tell me what to do now, huh? You're so high and mighty in your comfy position…I can't believe _you're_ the head."

Something was strange about the collection of adults; odd and almost chilling. All of them were silent, expressions across their faces dead serious. Even Russell looked taken aback at the teenager's outburst, or so she thought. Ha! She must have been terrifying if it was enough to shut Russell up. _She_ must have been terrifying…

Or…wait. Was it something else?

Red was staring at her, contemplating. With eyebrows raised in a sense of great knowing, he shook his head slightly.

Ellen had the same queasy feeling she had almost two hours ago. Her mind was working furiously, comprehending Russell's strange expression. She had an idea of what he was going to say, but the sinking feeling made her fight to disagree. She knew what he was going to say. She knew it. _Don't tell me_, she screamed inwardly, _don't tell me!_

"I might well tell you," Russell sighed. "Kaden…"

_DON'T TELL ME_!

The teenager's heart was beating like a hunted animal; she felt her face drain of color to a pasty white. _Donttellmedonttellmedonttellme_…

"Kaden-"

She'd rather have Giovanni _and_ his Pokémon kill her brutally. She didn't need to hear this. Let Team Rocket butcher her. Impale her body on a bed of needles. She knew what Russell was going to say. From the very beginning, even when she found the necklace in the pile of woolen sweaters, she knew from the beginning that her father was _DEAD_. GONE. DISSAPEARED. She was never going to see him again, no matter how hard she looked. Ellen was close to tears. Russell was going to say that Kaden was dead. And then what would she do? Kill herself?

_NO, YOU SHITHEAD! YOU LOUSY, STUPID, DUMBASS! SUICIDE IS FOR WEAK BASTARDS!_ _DON'T THINK ABOUT SUICIDE!_

"…began the Anti-Trainers. Kaden was the one who started the Anti-Trainers…we're sorry we didn't tell you earlier, but we didn't want to take any chances…and now we know…we don't want you to get hurt under Team Rocket's force…I mean, if _they_ knew…if _Giovanni_ knew, that would-" he stopped and frowned at Ellen. "…you look pale, Ellen. Are you alright?"

OoO

"Russell scared the hell out of me," Ellen rasped shakily. She kept her eyes focused on her plate of food and away from Brendan and Collin Birch, father and son. Brendan was contently spooning a heap of chili into his mouth, while the Professor looked a bit concerned.

"Uh, I know it might be different in your house hold, Ellen, but we prefer not to curse in this house," Collin said gently, giving her a small smile. His beard had grown a bit, and now his hair had reached just below his ears, but he still looked clean and well kept.

The girl looked up from her plate with blank eyes as her friend leaned over to her and whispered, "We're a good Christian family."

"Sorry," she mumbled. She pushed away her half-eaten chili and sighed. "I'm not that hungry."

"I'll take it!" With a swoop of his claw, Charles had the chili off the table in seconds and was gulping it down when Brendan also pushed his plate away and drained the last bit of his water.

"Okay, I'm finished too. Come on, Ellen. Let's go do something else."

Florescent lights filled Brendan's spacious bedroom, refracting against the bright white walls and waxed wood floors. If anything, the bedroom was the pinnacle of personality. Everything described him perfectly- the keyboard placed snugly next to the single bed, the black bookshelves mounted on the walls, filled with science textbooks and piles of manuscripts. A bright red couch sat in the middle of the room, paralleling the complete neutral tones of the room.

The first thing that Brendan did when they entered the room was snap his fingers, and immediately from off the bed came a terrifying behemoth; a forest green Pokémon with a gigantic bulb blooming from it's back.

"Barlow," the boy said, gesturing to the Venusaur, "Ellen, Charles, Feolan, Kyoshi, and Phil. Guys, Barlow."

"Lo," Barlow's gravely voice rumbled in his chest. "Make yourself at home."

Ellen did so and tentatively sat on the red couch. Barlow lumbered over to inspect her and her Pokémon, nodding when he concluded them 'acceptable.' "Glad to have some company," he grumbled, "Brendan isn't exactly the social type if yer catching my drift."

Brendan flopped into his desk chair. A relaxed smile crossed his face; he drummed his pudgy fingers on the arm of the chair and rubbed his mini-goatee, breaking into a grin.

"He must be _so_ proud," Feolan muttered, rolling his eyes.

After a bit more goatee rubbing, the teenager folded his hands together on his lap, looked at Ellen, and said carefully, "Well, I need to tell you something. I admit that I'm a very nosy person. Very, _very_ nosy. But there's an explanation for that. It's a writer's job to be nosy. A writer wouldn't get anywhere without being nosy. Why, Lance the Dragon Master would have _never_ become a writer if he hadn't listened in on the conversation between Mr. Fuji and Blaine! And take Gabby Ri-"

"What's your point?" Ellen snapped finally, fed up with him.

"Who were the people back at your house? And what'd it have to do with your dad?"

"I don't want to talk about it," the girl returned as quickly as the question was asked.

Brendan regarded her with a cool stare and a rye smile. "Oh? Well, it's not like I don't want to talk about what _really_ happened in Silph Co…"

Bony arms crossed, she smoldered for a bit. "You're not very _nice_."

"Neither are _you_," he pointed out.

She shrugged, silently agreeing. Barlow snorted and settled down on the ground. Phil yawned. Feolan curled up on the couch; a ball of white fur. General relaxation. "Okay…okay…" she sighed, and added quickly, "but I'm only telling you 'cause you helped out at Silph Co."

"Ellen," Brendan said tiredly, as if teaching a small child, "you need to understand the statistics of Silph Co…I didn't just _help_ you…I practically saved your life…just remember that…" he yawned and wheeled his chair around, proceeding to kick up his feet on his desk. He made a motion with his hand. "Well, we're not getting any younger."

Resisting the urge to fire back a rude comment or ultimately leave the room, Ellen swallowed, cleared her throat, and began with Pallet Town. Brendan seemed pleased with her narrative, occasionally adding tidbits of commentary, such as, 'I didn't _say_ that. I wasn't _that_ mean,' and 'It wasn't raining when we got our Pokémon. The sky was a freaking azure.'

As the girl began to tell of Viridian City, Kyoshi suddenly cried out, "Eleven at night? Ellen, we need to get home! Fredia is probably worried."

"It's already eleven?" She peered up at the digital clock mounted on Brendan's wall, and true enough, it was late at night. Even more obvious was that the windows were pitch black, and the trees around Pallet Town were being whipped in the wind. "Crap!" the girl cried. "Listen, Brendan, I'll come over tomorrow and tell you some more. If I can get away from my mom…"

The boy saluted her as she and her Pokémon left the room. "_Vertas Vos Liberabit_!" he boomed in a dead language.

When she returned home, Fredia was already asleep.

The Anti-Trainers were gone.

OoO

At two in the morning, realization finally kicked in.

He dad had started the Anti-Trainers.

Holy_ shit_.

'_Is that all you can say_?' she asked herself.

'_Yeah_,' she answered, pulling the covers back from her bed to toss them on the floor. The Pokémon were all asleep, save Feolan who was probably raiding the kitchen right about then.

Not only was she the 'heir to the Anti-Trainers' but she was suffering from a case of teenage insomnia. Great.

It was odd in a way, to be realizing this now. She had spent half her time listening to Russell when, frankly, _she_ had power over him. She paused. No, wait. Kaden didn't want her to get involved in the Anti-Trainers. Therefore, when she was born he must have allowed Russell to become the leader…

The teenager couldn't imagine her parents in that sort of situation. Fredia certainly wasn't Anti-Trainer material, and Kaden- well, she couldn't remember all that much about her father. A five-year old only could comprehend so much in her mind, especially feral little girl that Ellen was. She could only remember blurry features- thick brown hair, smiling brown eyes, slightly pale skin, and very tall; (of course, everyone looked tall when Ellen was a child.) She could possibly see her father doing something extremely dangerous and oh-so Anti-Trainerish…but when she tried to imagine Kaden Adler and a random Team Rocket member, (possibly even Giovanni) inflicting horrible pain upon one another¸ all that came up was a very small Ellen with her dad in the park. Not exactly what she was looking for, but pleasant enough.

But pleasant wasn't exactly the thing she was looking for, and pleasant things can lead into pleasantly twisted things, such as pictures of Kaden being slaughtered by numerous Team Rocket members, flashing in Ellen's head over and over again until she wanted to be sick.

"Man, what happened to _you_?"

Ellen looked up from her pillow to see the lupine silhouette of Feolan sitting in the doorway, his paw gripping some large slices of ham. "Listen, if you're gonna sneak out, at least include me."

"For the last freaking time; I'm _not_ sneaking out!" the girl hissed at him, putting a finger to her lips. "Shhh! My mom will wake up if you don't shut up!"

He shrugged and walked over to the blue shag rug on the floor, curling up on it. "Okay, okay, whatever. I'll chill here for a while and then snooze."

Wind beating against her window, and the girl sat in her bed, thinking. She crackled her knuckles. She bit her lip. She rubbed her sore arm, checking on her healing wound. She did anything she could to think, and when she had finally made a decision, shook Feolan awake.

The Mightyena brushed his paw across his eyes and mumbled something nonsensical, sounding like 'mmmm…mmm…Digimon…_hhhuuuhhh_?' He opened his red eyes, regarded Ellen with a grumpy growl, and stretched. "Hmmm…erg! Why the _hell_ did you wake me up?"

The ex-Anti-Trainer frowned. "You wanna know the hell why? Because I made a decision. No matter how long I have to stay here, no matter how damn long I have to walk, I'm _gonna find my dad_."

"Congratulations," he mumbled, and went back to sleep.

Somehow, this Ellen thought as a good omen.

OoO

It wasn't.

And when I write 'it wasn't,' don't think that the text divider separates _everything_ you read. But I refer to the phrase 'it wasn't' as in saying that _it wasn't_ but a month that Ellen finally escaped her house.

I might be lying about something, though.

It wasn't but a month that Ellen finally escaped her house, but the month was long, as they usually are. The middle of October flashed by in a burst of pumpkins, dry leaves, and frigid winds, and suddenly November was upon Kanto; the disheartening month of trees like skeletons and biting cold days.

Ellen warped into a general cadence that month; she would wake up at unusual times, her sleep patterns distraught, and eat a small bowl of cereal until Fredia shuffled in. Surprisingly, they didn't speak of the past and often only exchanged small comments and niceties, until the Anti-Trainer would slink back to her room, bored. She would waste time until around six, and happily go off to have dinner at Brendan's house, _every night_. She was astounded that they didn't get annoyed with her at all, and after dinner Brendan and Barlow would sit and listen to another piece of Ellen's story.

Often times when she was telling the story, the girl would pause for a moment and imagine the Anti-Trainers of the past and she aligned. What were they like? What's more, was she as good as them? Was she living up to the name of the Anti-Trainers…?

On and on she'd continue, and eventually as the adventure began to wind down she would confide in Brendan the conflict not only with Team Rocket but with her family, the Anti-Trainers, _and_ herself. And the tale would go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and-

Finally it was over.

"_Bra-vo_," Brendan said, clapping slowly. "I wish it could go on, though. And I sort of get the feeling that you do to."

The middle of November was almost upon them.

Ellen had begun to adapt to home again.

But two things made her leave.

OoO

"Hey…hey mom…"

Fredia lowered the newspaper from her face, blinked away the sleep in her eyes, and looked at her daughter. Although still very frail, Fredia had succeeded in giving her enough food to have a bit more color back in her skin, although the paleness was still hereditary. The mother rolled her eyes inwardly. Wonder where _that_ came from.

"Hmm?" she answered, preoccupied.

"Umm…" Ellen looked down at her feet under the kitchen table, noticing the small blisters here and there. "Remember when had that conversation, ya know, about a month ago. The Anti-Trainers came over…and…we sort of had an argument, and…"

"What about it?" she asked.

"Uh…" Charles made a sort of grunting noise, and the girl shot him a desperate glance. "Do ya have any idea…I mean, why dad sort of went up and left?"

Fredia heaved a large sigh and put down her newspaper, flattening it out on the kitchen table. She took a prolonged sip of coffee, smiled a small smile, and said, "I've been waiting ten years for you to ask me that."

No one said anything.

"Well," she hummed in a soft, thoughtful voice, "frankly, I don't know myself. That's my answer. I have no idea where Kaden went, he simply got up for work, kissed us both goodbye like normal, and left. Just _left_." She cupped her hands around the cup of coffee, steam rising up from it and slightly obscuring her face. "I often think about it, certainly. I always fight with myself. One part of me says that he wasn't meant for family life and decided he was caged up. So he left. But…another says that he didn't mean leave. Another part of me says he's in a living hell right now, even."

"Don't say that," Kyoshi mumbled cautiously.

"But I don't know what to think. I remember reading a quote once…'_I have to remind myself that some birds weren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knew it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice. But your world is just that much colder and emptier when they're gone._'"

"Thanks, mom," Ellen mumbled.

"You're welcome."

"I'm going upstairs now."

"Okay…are you alright? I love you."

"Yeah."

The group moved from the table to Ellen's room slowly, taking their time finishing off their cereal or toast. Once in the bedroom, the ex-Anti-Trainer's heart pounding, she booted up the dingy _Macrohard_ computer, instructing Charles to close and lock the door.

"Are we doing something illegal?" Phil asked, crawling up onto Ellen's lap to get a better view of the computer screen. He placed his slimy paws on the keyboard and slammed the keys a bit, giggling. "Computers are fun. Computers, computers, comp- Oh! The DM website?"

"Shhh!" Feolan hissed, whacking Phil on the shoulder with his paw. The Marshtomp whined furiously. "Can't you see this is _secret_?"

Ellen turned back to face the Mightyena with extreme seriousness. "Feolan, you were right. I seriously need to get out of here. Charles, Kyoshi- I'm really sorry, but we're getting the hell out of here. I can't just sit here. You heard what my mom said; a _living hell_. Once I get the last badge and defeat the Elite Four, I can get Rayquaza. That's the answer to the question! He'll find my dad _and_ scatter Team Rocket!" Ellen grinned at her Pokémon triumphantly.

"So, you're going on the Direct Messaging website?" Charles asked disbelievingly. "Wow. You've really outdone yourself this time, Ellen."

"No, I've seriously got a reason to be on this website. See, when I was talking to Jack and Miguel, Jack told me his DM address. And if I got in touch with him he could help me get out."

Charles looked at Kyoshi, whose calm attitude disappeared quickly as they both realized what was going to happen. But what could they say to her? 'No, you _can't_ find your father?' or 'No you _have_ to stay here?' Even though Charles and Kyoshi were the most mature of the group, they couldn't disagree with their ex-Anti-Trainer.

"But you'll get in _trouble_," Kyoshi added in a quiet, sing-song voice.

"Kyoshi, I basically daydream about going to the Last Gym and kicking some asses," the girl scoffed. "You know what my daydreams are like? Us completely destroying the last Gym Leader. _That's_ what I'm talking about." Hunched over the keyboard, the girl turned to the computer and began typing.

"Reckless," Charles muttered.

"Dense," Kyoshi added.

"Funny," giggled Phil.

"Smart," Feolan snorted. "Smart for getting her ass out of here. She can't sit in her house all day, _waiting_ for something to happen. So what if Fredia is worried? We're not doing anything dangerous."

The Pokémon turned back to the computer to find the internet directed onto the Direct Messaging homepage, and in the search bar was typed the word: _56Blackjack_. Almost one hundred hits had come up.

Phil groaned.

"I should have written it down somewhere…" the ex-Anti-Trainer mumbled to herself. "So…we could call Miguel and ask."

"_Ohh, yes_," Charles retorted in an obnoxiously high voice. "We can call Miguel after the little argument we experienced. Oh, and why not call Giovanni? Oh, yes, let's do that. Crazy fun time!" Ellen grabbed a tissue box off of her desk and tossed in back at Charles, who caught it with a smug smile.

"We could DM every single Blackjack there," Kyoshi suggested quietly, slowly immersing herself into the plan. "I doubt that any of my physic powers will help with all this technology…"

Phil shrugged. "I dunno, Kyoshi. Actually, you could probably use your mental ability to enter the hard drive of the computer and hack into the system, reading the bios of all the _Blackjacks_ there and therefore finding the one we want, or Jack."

Everyone stared at him blankly.

"I mean…_duh_," he said, slinking away.

"I'll pretend I never heard that and just DM all the Blackjacks on the page. I'll copy and paste: _Emerald, it's Fiery Sapphire_ over and over again."

Feolan snickered. "I'm sure you'll get some kinky replies from that."

"Ha-ha," Ellen laughed.

OoO

A day later a small dinging noise rang through Ellen's room, followed by a dangerously pleasant voice reporting, '_New message, freak_.'

Kyoshi looked taken aback by the little announcement. "How vicious. Wait…does that mean…?"

In the time span of a day, Ellen had received more than twenty replies to her message, most of them saying 'what?' or 'huh?' A few were a bit _strange_, and she quickly deleted those, but as she opened the newest message, something was very different from what she'd experienced from the others.

**56Blackjack2250**: _ellen? whoa, it's jack. where are you? btw, nice usrname_

Ellen quickly typed something back.

**Hellell**: _help! i'm at my moms house in palet town and i'm stuck. she found out i was a antitrainer._

**56Blackjack2250:** _bummer. i'm back at bro's apartment in Saffron i'm leaving for Jhoto in a week to see my parents. they thought I ran away, sorta lol._

_Yeah,_ thought Ellen, _sorta lol_.

**Hellell: **_srry, but you got to help me!!!!! and I have weird news. my mom told me about 5 weeks ago. my dad started the antitrainers._

**Hellell**: _help get me outa here I need to go to the Last gym!_

Jack didn't answer.

**Hellell**: _heeeelllloooo? AFDN!_

**56Blackjack2250**: _serious? _ _ur__ dad? okay, never mind. I believe you. I saw Russell about 2 weeks ago and he looked pretty gloomy. u really need to come back. if you're the heir-person…espesialy. how do you think you want to get out?_

**Hellell: **_Charles would fly me at night with everyon_

"Hey," Charles sniffed, "I never agreed to that. And you spelled 'everyone' wrong." Ellen ignored him.

**56Blackjack2250**: _r u crazy, woman!?!? you can't just fly out on a big fat Charizard. lol._

"_WHAT_!?" the dragon roared, infuriated. "I AM _NOT_ FAT!"

**56Blackjack2250: **_i'll help you. if i can get away for a hour or two, me and gwen can come over to your house. gwen knows how to make people invisible. maybe we could try with all of us, and then no one would figure out._

**Hellell:** _I owe you!!!_

**56Blackjack2250:** _np._

Once the fellow ex-Anti-Trainers had gotten the plan all set for that night, eleven thirty exactly, they prayed the Gym would still be open. The group began to make all the necessary preparations for their outing, but only a bare minimum was needed as they didn't want to make much noise when sneaking out.

Ending up, Ellen was dressed in jeans, sneakers, a red tee-shirt, and her gray jacket. Her backpack was slouched in the corner of the room, still packed and patiently waiting. She wouldn't be taking it with her, though.

"You should at least unpack it," Kyoshi suggested, sitting down upon the bed. The Persian stared at the backpack for a moment, narrowing her eyes, and slowly the sack rolled over on the ground and stopped, going limp again. Kyoshi furrowed her feline eyebrows and sunk her head. "Darn. Not quite."

"Try smaller things first," Phil suggested in a surprisingly mature manner. "Like paper, or maybe even a tissue box."

On cue, a pencil whizzed past the Marshtomp and hit Feolan square on the muzzle, causing him to yelp and fall backwards onto the floor.

"KYOSHI!" boomed the Mightyena.

"Feolan!" Kyoshi returned.

Sensing an argument coming on, Phil quickly changed the subject. "Umm…who's up for a game of _Monopoly_?"

"Dibs on buying Silph Co," Feolan said with a mocking grin directed at Ellen.

A tissue box hit Feolan on the backside, and Kyoshi smiled contently.

OoO

It had turned out to be a very cold night, and Viridian City was silent, the few streetlamps dotting the gravel streets with light, illuminating the occasional Rattata that scurried down a grassy strip. The wind blew the trees with a faint rustle; a gale sweeping up against the brick houses. The only sound that was heard came from the front of the Viridian City Gym, where two figures were speaking to each other in casual conversation.

Jack greatly enjoyed the scenery, but he couldn't concentrate on picturesque views at that moment. He had to concentrate on staying afloat on Gwen. As ghosts aren't a physical presence, per say, the Haunter began to shift in and out of feasibility every so often, resulting in Jack plummeting to the ground below.

As the boy picked brambles from his hair and looked around to see his surroundings, his gaze shifted to the Last Gym. The great stone building, long in horizontal terms but vertically challenged, seemed to be devoid of any light or presence, save for the two figures outside. Worried that the Gym was closed for some reason, (besides the fact that it was an ungodly hour of the night,) he walked up to the two people speaking, a little intimidated once he saw them up-close.

It was a man and a woman, but in odd attire. The man was wearing gray pants and a gray jacket, a gray outline of a Pokéball emblazed on the back of the jacket. In one hand he held a sort of paddle with a red target on it, and the other a long, deadly whip reaching almost to the ground. The woman was clad in something entirely different; she wore the bare minimum of clothing except for an orange rap around shirt and small orange shorts. Rapped around her knuckles were cloth strips, and her hair was placed back in a scraggly ponytail.

"Um, e-excuse m-me?" Jack asked timidly, "B-but is the G-g-gym o-open?"

The woman's eyes glinted at him furiously, and she shook her head. "No. It's closed."

"Oh." The teen stuffed his hands in his pockets. "D-do you have any c-clue as t-to w-when it'll b-be o-open?"

"Never," the woman said bluntly.

"_N-never_?" Jack repeated.

The man leaned forward a bit as to make his presence and the whip clear. "_Look_. The goddamn Gym is closed, punk."

"A G-g-gym can't be c-closed f-forever."

"Huh." The Tamer resumed his original stance, looking at the boy with dismay, and exchanged looks with the Battle Girl he was chatting with. She nodded slightly at him. "Sorry, but this one can," he sneered. "Now, I'll give you three to get out of here."

"One…"

"The G-g-gym _h-has_ t-to be o-open," Jack pressed.

Gwen tugged impatiently on Jack's shirt collar, her instincts telling her to leave very quickly. The teen didn't budge.

"Two…" Both trainers looked very hostile now, their faces twisted with ferocity.

The Haunter was making small wails of fear and was basically digging her ghostly claws into his shirt and trying to drag Jack away.

"_THREE_!"

Gwen suddenly gasped and disappeared Jack and herself, jerking violently away, just as the whip came flashing down to the ground in one simple sweep. The cracking of the whip echoed through Viridian City as Gwen and Jack hurriedly made for Pallet Town, dreading the news they would have to report to Ellen. They didn't even notice the Tamer screaming curses at them from behind.

Soon, the duo reached the Pallet Town suburbs and Jack instantly recognized Ellen's house; the only house with a huge, seemingly vicious Charizard sticking its head out of the second floor window, eyes wide open. When the Haunter floated into view, Charles grinned, showing a flash of sharp teeth and waved.

Okay, not so vicious.

Charles moved away from the window for a moment and came back with the rest of the group; Ellen appeared in the window and gave Jack a thumbs-up.

"Took you long enough," she half whispered, half yelled as Kyoshi skillfully jumped from the window. Charles flew the others down and shut the window behind them, making sure everything looked intact.

Jack's smile slowly dissipated as he realized he'd have to inform her about the Gym. "O-oh, uh…E-ellen, I s-sort of h-have s-some b-bad news." He carefully recounted the encounter with the two trainers at the front of the Gym door.

As predicted, Fiery Sapphire's fact turned into a look of confusion and disappointment. She glanced anxiously back at her house, weighing her options. She could silently sneak back in and pretend she never had a plan…and wait…and wait…or she could continue on and see if Jack was just overreacting. The second one sounded much more practical in her eyes.

"How about I see for myself." Smiling, the girl rose up into the air on her Charizard as Gwen and Jack had a wobbly little floating session and finally ended up next to Charles.

"So, you t-think y-you can d-do t-this?" Jack asked Gwen; the subject being invisibility.

Gwen nodded and blinked her large, watery eyes. "It's actually quite simple once you get the hang of it. But," she added to her trainer, "I don't want you getting hurt. Those people back there looked awfully dangerous, and I want you to know that I'll do anything to protect you."

Ellen didn't bother translating.

OoO

Pallet Town rushed by in a blur. The cold wind stung Ellen's face. Although she couldn't see Charles, she could tell that the dragon was annoyed by the cold weather they were having. Once they reached Viridian City, the Charizard jerked upwards suddenly, spreading his navy wings apart and narrowly avoiding a thin canopy of trees that had abruptly appeared.

"Thanks for warning me about the trees," she heard Charles growl.

"We can't help it," Phil put in. "Our eyesight is half as good as yours."

"Not really," the Charizard admitted.

"The G-g-gym's r-right h-here!" the heard Jack call to them, and Charles slowly began to descend through the maze of trees. He touched down onto the ground, landing with a thump. Jack and Gwen soon appeared.

Not only did Jack and Gwen appear beside them, but the two trainers as well, staring at the jumbled mass with awe. The Battle Girl glanced over at Jack and opened her mouth to say something, but the Tamer quickly interrupted.

"You again!" he snarled, jabbing his whip at Jack. "I told you to get your ass out of here! Do you want me to whip you?"

"Hey!" Ellen yelled hotly, standing up to brush her jeans off. She fumbled in her pocket before pulling out a small case of badges. "What's it to you? I've got all seven badges! See?"

"The Gym is closed." The Battle Girl crossed her arms.

"I'm not leaving until I get the Last Badge," the resurrected Anti-Trainer said simply.

"Y-yeah," Jack agreed.

"Fine," the Tamer scoffed, holding up the whip and smiling cruelly. "Let's see how long you last after I _lash_ both of you."

The whip hit Jack across the arm first, who stumbled backwards with a cry as the thin line of blood already began to appear. The Battle Girl snorted with laughter and said something to the effect of, 'freak.'

The Tamer then advanced on Jack again, holding the whip high in the dark, frigid air. The Tamer's wrist had not moved more than an inch when there was a flash of purple. Suddenly, a furious Gwen sped forward and lunged at the man's throat, jerking the Tamer back against the Gym wall. His horrified scream was cut short when the Haunter punctured the jugular vain and began to rip his throat out, spewing blood to the ground.

The group, frozen with fear, now burst into a frenzied blur of action. The Battle Girl threw out a Pokéball; a Primape appearing. The giant pig-like creature tried to tear Gwen away from the mutilated body of the Tamer, but the ghost simply ignored the fighting-type's poor attempts at victory.

Jack looked horrified as he watched his protective Pokémon maim the trainer and suddenly ran forward, screaming, "_G-GWEN, S-STOP_!"

The inflamed Battle Girl caught Jack by the collar and aimed a punch at the face, when Feolan latched onto the fighter's leg and snarled, digging his teeth into her ankle as the woman shrieked with fear.

"_G-GWEN, S-STOP,_" Jack repeated wildly, still in his place. The ghost wouldn't move, though, and suddenly Emerald realized the importance of this event. "E-ellen," he cried, looking around for the girl. "Ellen! G-get the b-badge! G-get in the G-g-gym!"

Ellen opened her mouth in surprise and disagreement, but Gwen suddenly turned from the trainer and spat out something gory. "No, go on. Really. I think we can handle ourselves quite well," she said in a polite, kind voice, as a piece of flesh slipped from her jaws and dribbled to the ground.

Charles wasn't about to refuse advice from a predatory ghost, and he picked up Ellen by her waist and simply opened the door, letting the other Pokémon file in first before closing the door behind him, shutting away the noise. Totally silent, totally devoid from the gory fight outside.

The Gym was simply a narrow hallway leading further into the bowels of the building, lit by dim, warm lighting. It was stuffy and humid in the Gym, and as the group traveled down the hallway, disturbed by all that just happened, they broke into a desperate sprint.

"WE'RE HERE FOR THE BADGE!" Ellen screamed as the hallway winded further and further. "_WE'RE HERE FOR THE BADGE_!"

"I can't believe it," Phil cried giddily, "we're at the last Gym!"

"I feel so experienced!" Charles roared.

"For once, I feel optimistic," Kyoshi intoned gloomily.

"At least _someone_ listened to me," Feolan growled at the teenager.

Ellen's heart pounded furiously as Fiery Sapphire bounded down the hallways leading to her final step to victory¸ the final Gym that awaited her. She had survived through so many horrific experiences and shattering times that this all paid off; the final fight before continuing onto the Elite Four.

Kaden would be proud, yes, he would be _so_ proud of her! To think that his strange, little PSD girl would have grown up to become a champion! Think of how much she'd tell Kaden when she would finally find him! Rayquaza would be glad to help her; that's what the scientific paper with all the funny words said! Once she acquired all the badges and became a Pokémon Champion, Rayquaza would do her bidding! Wow! What an honor! Did she really deserve it?

_Don't kid yourself_, Ellen said mentally, _you're the daughter of the Head Anti-Trainer_!

"I'm here for the badge!" Fiery Sapphire called again, slowing to a halt. From the arched doorway grew a huge, cavernous room, almost like a marble arena, with two stadium boxes for the trainers to stand in. The room was lit by multiple small lights on the walls, but the room was as dim as possible. She blinked, eyes adjusting to the light. No one was there, it seemed.

"Hello?" she asked hoarsely. "Hello? I'm sorry for…uh…_intruding_ like this…but I'd really like to battle for the Last Badge…it's _real_ important…" she paused, desperate, and tried to call one last time. "I'm here for the badge…please…I'm here _fo_-"

Suddenly, something caught the teen by the throat and jerked her back against the room wall, pounding her head against the dirty marble. Her head cracked into the stone, making her skull throb with a sharp pain. A wave of terror washed over her as two hands compressed around her neck and fingers dug into her throat, killing her gasps silently and quickly.

With a whimper of fear, Ellen could slowly decipher the viciously grinning face through the darkness, and with every second of lost life and every breath choked under the tightening grip, her life slowly crumbled apart and fell lower into the earth, where it would be torn up and devoured by her enemy.

Speaking as a writer, I hope you too can decipher the face through the darkness, and I certainly know that for any avid gamer that this was one of the pinnacle points of their Kanto experience. But nevertheless, as Fiery Sapphire's life dwindles on a thread and her heartbeat quickens and pounds so rapidly that it just might _stop_-

I would like you to know that the face through the darkness; the Last Gym Leader, was in fact, readers, Giovanni.

OoO

_How many of our daydreams would darken into nightmares if there seemed any danger of their coming true!_

- Logan Pearsall Smith


	37. The War for Life and Death

Well, Ellen battles Giovanni for the final badge in order to gain entrance into the Pokémon League. IF YOU AS THE READER ARE DSITURBED BY CURSING, VIOLENCE, GORE, OR MINOR EXPLICIT THEMES, PLEASE DON'T YELL AT ME.

Enjoy, I spent a while toiling over this, and remember to leave a **REVIEW**.

OoO

F.S 37

**The War for Life and Death**

The Viridian City Gym Badge was notoriously hard to win.

This statement was true, of course, but in a sense much deeper than what the text implied. It was obviously hard to win, due to the fact of it being the Last Badge, but what was most challenging about the gym was the _leader_, whose identity remained unseen and unquestioned.

It was true that Gym Leaders are hesitant about handing out badges here and there, but the Last Gym Leader was not fond of even challenging trainers. It was more of a legal job to him, a sort of shell that was useful but generally unneeded. Although once in a while, he found the Gym to be of use, particularly when it favored his own personal gain, such as using it as a hideout. Sometimes, though, he cursed himself for using the Gym as a hideaway. Gyms were so _damn_ public. It was _unintelligent_ to choose the Gym as a reclusive spot.

However, Giovanni could fix that problem quite simply if taken in good perception. For instance, Anti-Trainers could be disposed of with a simple method called strangulation, which was what Ellen Adler was going through right at that very second.

Charles suddenly realized the scenario and seized the Boss's arms with his claws, wrenching it backward with a terrifying roar. The Charizard would have ripped Giovanni's throat out and been done, but the Boss's one-handed grip on Ellen's throat jerked away and the Anti-Trainer sunk to the ground, retching.

"_WHY ARE YOU HERE_?" Giovanni screamed; his face contorted into a look of incensed brutality. He ignored the huge dragon holding him captive and made a blind lunge forward. With a twist of Charles's wrist, the man unleashed a cry of pain as his arm almost tore from its socket. "Why…can't…you…just…_die_?"

Ellen was going through a spasm of shock and confusion, the world around her clouded by a surreal blur which soothed her a bit…and then she realized what was really happening and gasped for air, pushing herself up from the floor on her gloved palms. Her mind went hazy for a split second, and suddenly everything was in visible again.

The girl tested out her shaky limbs and arose from the ground, breathing heavily. "What did you _do_ to the Gym Leader?" Ellen's voice was shaking, whether from fear or anger she would not decide.

Giovanni did not answer.

"Ellen, we should-" the feline began.

The Charizard looked Ellen's way, interrupting Kyoshi. "Ellen, I can kill him right now. I can-"

"_What did you do to the Gym Leader_?" Ellen yelled, her voice now high and staccato with panic. Something vicious triggered in her mind, and she had the strange urge to batter the man with punches.

She was vaguely aware that the Boss could notice the wide-eyed, trembling terror that was obvious on her face, but she never expected him to laugh. It was as if he could read her mind. It was more of a low chuckle, and his lips curled into a tauntingly demure smile. Though daunting, Giovanni ceased to appear the way he had in Celadon, or even in Silph Co. His sharp, almost predatory features did not appear as vigilant as before, and the black suit did not fit him- he seemed thinner.

Giovanni chuckled again and growled through the dim light, "I _am_ the Gym Leader."

For a split second, Ellen could see the twisted truth in his answer, but she quickly dispelled the idea. Her feet felt heavy as she stepped forward; a knot curled in her stomach. "No you're not. No. You're lying."

"Now why would I do that?" He suddenly jerked his arms wildly and Charles roared, digging his jagged claws into the Boss's arms. "Now why would I do that?" he questioned again. His teeth clenched in rage, his next lines came forth in a hissing snarl. "It really is _possible_, Fiery Sapphire. Imagine. You've been searching for months for all eight badges, and it comes down to _me_. I use this Gym as a permissible career." He paused, furrowing his dark brows and slowly grinned. "There's no Earth Badge for you, Anti-Trainer."

Ellen's throat closed with the poignant fear that she would break down into tears. In her Pokémon's eyes, she found the same horrified understanding; Feolan flicked his wild, pallid tail and uttered a small whine, staring up at the Anti-Trainer with knowledge that the Mightyena was devoid of in previous situations.

Without warning, the girl unleashed a high cry of anger and with her fist hit Giovanni on the side of his jaw. She watched with bitter conceit as the man's jaw muscles contracted, bracing for impact and how he stumbled back, catching himself on the heel of his shoe. The Boss slowly tilted his head around to face her again, gingerly snapping his jaw back into position. He said nothing, understanding his position in the standoff, but stared at Ellen with such dark hatred that she stumbled back a bit.

"Bitch," he hissed.

Charles's eyes widened and with it, his large pupils shrunk into pinpoints. _No one_ called Ellen that. He snarled, baring his yellowish teeth and without thinking released a claw from Giovanni's arms.

"_Charles_!" Feolan howled. "_Idiot_! _Dumbass_!"

Both the Boss and Kyoshi immediately sprung into action, the man pulling a Pokéball from his pocket and tossing it onto the ground just as Kyoshi pounced from her tense standing point. Charles made a lunge at the Boss just as he narrowly avoided having a giant gash put through his shoulder. A bright white flash of energy and matter instantly enveloped the Pokéball that Giovanni had just thrown to the ground. Even before the giant Nidoking appeared, the group could already hear its guttural roar as the wispy matter-stuff morphed into the hulking purple behemoth.

"Look who's at a disadvantage _now_!" Giovanni boomed from across the room. As the Nidoking had materialized, the Boss had reached the safety of keeping close quarters with the Pokémon. "I have to say, Fiery Sapphire, when I first met you I thought you had some spirit about you." He chuckled, but his face quickly changed to a severe look of fury. "Of course, after I had heard you _murdered_ Mr. Kyler with _my_ handgun I decided differently. NIDOKING, _EARTHQUAKE_!"

It began with slight tremors in the Gym floor, as if anticipating, and the first split appeared in the ground, a jagged line cracking from Nidoking's claw to the other side of the Gym. As multiple cracks appeared in the floor, the black tiles shoved from their places and thrust up as the entire floor began to tear into enormous crevices. The room became a shifting world of earth. On instinct Feolan, Kyoshi, and Phil grabbed onto Charles. The Charizard grabbed Ellen's arm and pushed off from the ground hard, roaring with surprise as the ground crumbled below him. His lift off was weak, but his clumsy, frantic wing beats brought them into the air.

Kyoshi released a breath when she finally got her bearings, but furrowed her brow. Phil was clinging onto the Charizard's neck and crying silently, uttering small hiccups occasionally. The Persian's face fell as she proceeded to console the little Marshtomp. She had realized that this was his first time face to face with Giovanni. When he arrived at Silph Co, the battle was nearly over. Now, of course…it was just beginning.

"Phil…" Kyoshi sighed, nuzzling him despite Charles's jerky flying motions. "Everything will be alright."

"I'm scared!" the Marshtomp wailed. He stuck one of his fins into his mouth to prevent himself from crying, but that only made him gag. "I…I remember when Mewtwo transmitted Ellen's thoughts to me…" he broke into sobs, but quickly pulled himself together. "I…remember hearing about Giovanni…he did really…really _mean_ things…"

The Persian grimaced when she saw the ground. The Boss did not look peeved at all that they were above the attack- in fact, he looked happy. "It'll be alright, Phil. I promise."

"Okay," he sniffed quietly, turning away.

Charles suddenly bucked and turned directly upright in the air as the group released cries of surprise. A giant stalactite crashed to the ground, directly the spot where the Charizard had been hovering just before he moved. "HEADS UP!" he bellowed, and suddenly the sky was falling.

Because the building was underground, not only had the ground been effected but the walls and ceiling. Ellen whimpered as she saw the scene above her. Although beautiful and with a delicate glass-like structure, the crystalline stalactites dripping from the ceiling crumbled under seismic reverberations.

Giovanni grinned when he saw the look of dread on the Anti-Trainer's face. He longed for her head to be split open by a stalactite, although he would have more pleasure in killing her himself. He momentarily cursed himself for not brining his handgun; it would have made things much easier, and the two Grunts guarding the Gym were obviously inadequate. _I SHOULD have armed myself with more Grunts_, he thought acidly. A transitory blankness on his part. Damn.

"Nidoking, knock them out of the air and kill the Pokémon. Bring Fiery Sapphire to me. I will kill her myself," Giovanni said with a hint of satisfaction in his voice.

A hulking mass slowly trampled through the collapsing arena, ignoring the glass-like stalactites that fell through the air and pounded the ground in deranged beauty. Nidoking looked upwards at the swooping, dodging Charizard. The group was clung to his back, as the remaining small stalactites would pelt down onto them, showering crystal bits that mimicked a warm, colorful glow in the dim lighting.

It was the most beautiful thing Nidoking had ever seen.

The behemoth twisted his jagged body around and with some strain lifted his heavy tail from the ground. He let it waver in the air as if it was the weight of a feather, an undulating whip. Nerves taut and muscles tense with concentration. Eyes focused on his target. Tail quavering. A bloodthirsty look in Giovanni's eyes.

And he attacked.

The dragon and tail collided- Nidoking's tail acted like a mace as it caught Charles in the stomach and threw him across the room, pounding him into the wall. The Charizard's passengers fell to the ground, and Charles's world paused for a moment when he found himself crushed between the nail and the wall. Even as the Nidoking regained his original stance and let the dragon fall to the ground in a sort of slow motion, Charles felt chest scream with pain. He could feel his ribs crack- one, two, three…digging into his skin. His throat felt like it split to pieces, and indeed, when he held his mangled claw up to his throat it seemed the gleaming orange scales had been ruptured by small bones and blood.

'_I'd like to die now_,' he concluded, but wanted to tear his heart out after saying it. Even as his life was slipping away, he still needed to protect his Anti-Trainer…the one who had chosen and raised him as a little Charmander.

Blood was entering his eye sockets, and he blinked wearily. His eyes were stinging.

The others were not as severely hurt as Charles was, but still battered and broken. All of them had suffered bruises and cuts, but Feolan's hind leg was useless and dragged along the ground as the albino Mightyena winced in pain. Phil was crying for his parents as blood tricked from his head to the mouth and made him gag.

"Charles…? Charles…_CHARLES_!" Ellen's screams became hysterical as she rose to her knees in the broken, cracked ground and dug through dirt and stones to reach the dying Charizard. When she found him there came a multitude of choked sobs. Charles really wished she would not cry but instead help him out a bit, but from the looks of Ellen, it seemed she would not be going anywhere.

Kyoshi shook the dust from her fur and padded over to Charles and Ellen. Her eyes roamed over Charles, unchanging and blank. If one looked closely, there might have been a certain glimmer of sorrow in the Persian's eyes, and if divulged even deeper one might have found certain affection for the Charizard.

Charles was now very irritated that no one had done anything besides mourn. This was _not_ a time to be sappy. He opened his mouth halfway and uttered a weak growl which faded into a whine.

"Wha-what do we do now?" Ellen whipped her eyes on her tattered sleeve, and faded into tears again.

Kyoshi blinked.

"Dad would know what to do," Phil whispered quietly, desperately. "Dad's big and strong."

"Shut _up_," Feolan growled tiredly, shooting a glare at the Marshtomp. "Can't you function without talkin' about your parents for _once_?"

The Persian hit the Mightyena with her paw. "He's just a little Marshtomp! I-" Kyoshi paused, and the group was suddenly aware of a rumbling in the ground, and above them rose the Nidoking, staring down at Ellen.

"Ack," Feolan said.

Giovanni's far off voice sounded almost musical, although 'musical' implied death, pain, and humiliation. "Fiery Sapphire…either you come or I kill all of you right now…"

The behemoth looked at her with almost an overcast sympathy. _Sorry_, he seemed to say, _but I have been chronically and physically brainwashed by Team Rocket so that I have no inner thoughts, morals, or decisions of my own._

Yeah right.

"Go," Kyoshi said in a monotone, her back facing the Anti-Trainer. "He doesn't have any of his Pokémon with him…right now. It's human against human."

Ellen stared at Kyoshi, her mouth agape. "Huh- you want me to get killed?"

"No." The Persian breathed an annoyed sigh. "I want you to…um…kill that _bastard_ Giovanni Kill him like the Tauros killed all those Meowths. Have him die like Jefferson died. A _broken_ mass."

"Whoa," the Mightyena said, stepping back.

"He did this to Charles, he gets the same treatment!" Kyoshi hissed. "Now go."

"Oh…okay…" The Anti-Trainer said a silent goodbye to the dying Charles and looked up at the Nidoking, nodding slightly.

Feolan tried to bring the spirits up with something even the least bit cheery. "Hey! At least he hates you so much that he won't rape you! Hahahaha…ha…ahhh…okay…"

Phil continued to cry.

Feolan winced.

Charles throbbed in pain.

Kyoshi blinked.

OoO

When Giovanni came into view, her resembled some sort of demonic god amongst the chaos. While almost the entire Gym floor was a disaster of ruble, a small circle of perfection ran around the Boss's standing place; black tiles on the ground matching his overall dark appearance. Anger flamed up inside of the Anti-Trainer. She was both terrified and violent all at once, and with every jagged step across mounds of earth thoughts of both her own death and Giovanni's death contorted in her mind, weighing out the options. Die a martyr? Or run and become a coward? What would the other Anti-Trainers done if they were in her place? Russell certainly would have a bit of a score to settle- even the mere mention of Giovanni's name sent the man into a temper.

"Excellent decision," Giovanni purred just as Ellen stepped into the godly circle. "Now your Pokémon won't see you're limbs being ripped apart."

"Bastard," she hissed, and without warning caught the Boss on the nose with her fist. There was a sharp crack, and blood spurted from his nose, soaking down into his no longer perfect suit. It seemed that Giovanni was surprised, but he unexpectedly wiped the blood from his nose and mouth with his sleeve and flicked his wrist to send a shower of blood flecks onto Ellen's shoes. The Boss's face twisted to anger, and he reached his hand back to strike the Anti-Trainer across the face, allowing a streak of blood to stain her cheek. She stumbled backward, bumping into the Nidoking standing behind her.

"_Never_-" Giovanni struck her again. "-_will you live to see the day_-" Nidoking suddenly pushed her down onto the ground with a simple flick of his lethal claw. "-_that you harm me…AGAIN._ Apologize._"_

"_What_?"

"APOLOGIZE," he screamed, "GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES AND BEG FOR MERCY!"

Ellen shook her head furiously and gave the Boss an obscene finger gesture. With that, Giovanni stepped down on her hand, crushing it beneath his heel. The Anti-Trainer unleashed a gasp of pain when her finger bones snapped- one by one. The man grinned viciously down at her.

"_That_ is sufficient for an apology," he snarled. Giovanni then stomped down on her head, pushing her face into the tiles. Ellen protested by screaming curses furiously, calling the Boss several curses only known to Hitmonchan. Her teeth were digging into the side of her mouth, and if the pressure continued to press down on her nose, something serious would occur. There was a very, very faint popping noise, and blood pooled around her nose. _A nose for a nose, I guess_, she thought solemnly.

"_HA_!" the Boss kicked the Anti-Trainer sharply in the neck. The girl, jolted awake by the sudden, sharp pain, coughed and rolled over, stumbling and scrabbling to regain her stance. "Dog! Bitch! You Anti-Trainers are nothing but _scum_! I'LL BEAT YOU TO DEATH, DOG!" He kicked her again, in the stomach, causing her to roll back onto the ground and retch. Now- again in the shoulder, again on the arm, again on the leg, and the flurry of kicking continued even when the man began hearing snaps of broken bones.

_Kick. Kick. Snap. Kick. Snap. Snap_.

Giovanni soon rounded away from Ellen as if nothing had happened, circling the Anti-Trainer in a remotely casual way. "I don't even know why you try," he commented, and paused to spit a mixture of saliva and blood on her. "Do you know the price of being an Anti-Trainer? More than death. Prolonged torture and humiliation. Beatings. Choking. Would you like to experience these things?"

The man gave her almost no time to answer. "I guarantee that you _will_." He regarded the Anti-Trainer with deranged curiosity, eyes roving over Ellen's bruised face, her tattered sleeves soaked with blood. Her left arm was at an odd angle, it seemed to jerk to the complete left, normally impossible. "I don't understand why you even come here," he continued, looking away in thought. "You shouldn't be collecting badges. You should have already traveled to my Headquarters…"

Despite the ferocious pain of her broken body, Ellen managed a small smirk. Giovanni seemed so stupid not to understand what she was trying to achieve. The Rayquaza Document was even written by a certified Team Rocket scientist. The Anti-Trainers had stolen it from them! How could they not realize?

She could not grasp words correctly with so much pain, but she managed to conjure up an explanation. "You know why I'm…collectin' badges?" She had some unexplainable feeling of joy. She wanted to laugh. How odd. "You know why? When…I become the freakin' _Champion_…Rayquaza will kill _all_ of Team Rocket. Every single bastard is gonna die."

He smirked. "Unless I kill you."

This was highly possible.

"Now," Giovanni said, "would you like me to continue beating you, or should we move on to death?"

"I-," began Ellen.

"Death sounds pleasing. But before that, I think your Pokémon need to die." Without a second thought, he jerked his index finger to point across the room, and immediately the Nidoking grunted and followed orders to leave.

The Anti-Trainer scrabbled painfully to stand again, but Giovanni aimed a sharp kick at her chin and sent her reeling back. Her jaw screamed with pain. The Boss calmly removed two Pokéballs from his pocket and smiled, tossing them onto the ground.

The matter-stuff rose once again, but one Pokéball grew too much greater proportions than the Nidoking did. A Nidoqueen formed from one; a blue, bipedal creature with jagged needles running down its back to curve onto the thick tail. From the other Pokéball, though, rose a great, stone gray, bipedal creature with a huge drill on the end of its snout. Its body was heavily armored by what seemed like extra layers of thick hide, and from its scaly arms grew stumpy claws.

Rhydon opened its mouth to snarl, revealing rows of carnassials; jagged teeth ideal for tearing meat. Giovanni mimicked the cruel grin and impersonated the rhinoceros quite well. And even as Ellen froze up with fright to see the carnivorous mascot of Giovanni, and as the Boss held his steady glare, revulsion seeming to radiate off of him, the Anti-Trainer still held her spirit and with a certain sorrow, whispered, "Oh fuh-"

OoO

"-uck," Feolan finished just as Kyoshi finished delicately probing one of Charles's broken ribs. The Charizard did not utter a sound, but he winced as the rib bone moved slightly.

"Do something," Phil wailed pathetically, blood spattering onto the Persian's face as he waved his fins at her in a desperate attempt to be acknowledged. Hastily, Phil looked over his shoulder at Giovanni, Ellen, and the Nidoking. "PPPlllleeeaaasssseee! Charles is dying! And…Giovanni is kicking Ellen!"

"I'm _trying_, for Mew's sake," hissed Kyoshi in a wobbly voice. "I…I…_don't think this isn't hard for me_!"

"Does that mean Charles is gonna die?" the Marshtomp whimpered.

Kyoshi furrowed her furry brow and turned back to her patient. The wounds were so contorted and tangled in muscle and flesh that it was hard to see what was exactly wrong with the dragon, besides the obvious occurrence of bones sticking up in the air. The feline was vaguely aware that Phil had just vomited behind her, and from the warm, soupy substance matted in her fur, she guess that the Marshtomp's target unfortunately was herself.

Working furiously with her mind, the Persian composed a sort of ethereal image of the scene before her, and Kyoshi's world slowly sunk into a state of mental capability, a sort of second world that existed when using Physic powers. The Gym was now tinted a dark purple, and she gingerly held one of her paws up in the air and with a snap of her mind took hold of one of the rib bones. Charles must have been in pain, because automatic guilt jolted through her body. Ignore it. The Persian began to work in a quicker fashion, forming the bones together, sealing them with a bit of Physic energy until she could find a more substantial glue, such as muscle or tissue. Almost half of the rib cage was fashioned together when a dull voice rose behind her.

'_Are you trying to put that Charizard back together_.' the tedious voice came from a dark-skinned, squat Physic trainer wavering above her. Apparently another Physic had entered the second world the same time as her, although this Physic seemed different. He seemed…dead, almost. '_I wouldn't try that. You don't seem to be doing it right.'_

Immediately after the Physic uttered this, the bones tumbled from Kyoshi's mental grasp and back into their original place. Apart from the thousands of disjointed voices echoing throughout the dimension, a roar of pain erupted from the Reality of Kanto.

"Charles!" gasped the feline, reaching out.

'_Why can't you understand.' _he asked._ 'The bones in this dimension are different from the ones in reality. You can't fix people here. We're already dead. I'm already dead, Giovanni got me a little while ago when I broke into his Gym. Trying to mend in this dimension,_' he waved his transparent hands about,_ 'just makes it worse. Why not heal the Charizard. That shouldn't be too hard.'_

"Heal? But…I can't heal living creatures. Only elite Physics can heal creatures…can you?" she cocked her head at him.

The Physic's expression turned skeptical. '_If I could heal things, I wouldn't be dead. But you seem like the material to heal. All you need is to love.'_

Kyoshi held her breath. "Really…?" she asked eagerly, her heart swelling to immense sizes.

'_NO. Love doesn't conquer all. It's a huge lie. What you need is concentration, physical, and mental strength. Go back to reality. It's the only way to heal people. Goodbye. I'm going to go curse Giovanni.'_

"Wait!" The Persian's face brightened in hope. "Do all dead things have freedom like this?"

'_Yes_. _Each has his own level. Although Physics and Ghosts only have the ability to interact with reality. Every corpse has a home._'

"Restored to their former selves?"

'_We can't have piles of digested bones floating around. Yes, in some cases.'_

"Well…if you see a group of Meowths floating around, tell them that Kyoshi says 'hello' and that I'm doing well and I haven't committed suicide, so they don't need to worry about me at all, except for now. Oh, and-"

'_Maybe_._'_ The Physic was gone.

Kyoshi shrugged as the Physic Dimension faded away; the shadowy light of the Gym returned, and like a balloon bursting, the immense sound of reality thudded in the feline's sensitive ears. Roars, cries, thumps, snaps- none of the dull murmurings of…the dead? The Physic? Whoever those voices were.

"-and that's why I'm gonna help Ellen." Feolan had apparently just finished a lengthy speech, as Phil was curled up in the mixture of dirt and vomit. The Mightyena flicked his gaze to Kyoshi and rolled his eyes. "Jeezus. You're back. Listen, while you were in your little Happy-Place, I decided I need to help Ellen. There's, like, three freaking Pokémon over there! _And_ Giovanni!"

"What about Charles?" Phil asked.

"I'll worry about him," commented the Persian offhandedly, waving the wolf away. "Feolan- you go. Phil, stay with me."

Feolan nodded briskly and sprung off the ground in a full burst of speed. The lithe, white Mightyena disappeared into the dim light as Kyoshi turned back to Charles, inhaling a sharp gasp. The fire on his tail was merely more than a flickering, spitting flame that seemed to be slowly fizzling out. Kyoshi dearly wished her dead yet cynical Physic friend was there to help her, but he was on the other end of the Gym. He could have at least stayed around to explain…but there was no time. She needed to find out how to heal creatures. Give life to them. A quick, easy, smooth way of healing-

It just hit her.

Strangely enough, it suddenly just appeared in her knowledge. She _knew_ how to heal. Kyoshi looked around, tensing her muscles. Suppose her dead Physic friend had helped her? Or did she have the knowledge for sometime…or did she just learn it? If so, she must have learned it quiet recently, perhaps in the last month when she had numerous chances to polish her Physic powers. But why had it come to her just now?

She was not it the presence of anything special. No legendaries, no Gods, no-

Dark Types.

Shaking her head, Kyoshi smiled. Feolan had accidentally prevented her from using the healing powers. Being too near him was preventing certain Physic ambiance to enter her mind. Poor guy. He would not take it that well.

Kyoshi shook her head again. Never mind that! Turing back to Charles, she once again fused his bones together, which was much easier this time, and constructed a basic covering of muscle tissue to hold the rib cage together. The effects were miraculous as the Persian continued the healing- the gore seemed to almost shrivel up and decompose as new flesh, muscle, and bone began to form over the rib cage again, taut and new. Orange scales grew- although the Charizard experienced discomfort through this, and in fact seemed to be experiencing discomfort throughout the whole thing.

Once Charles's stomach was reconstructed and fairly normal looking, Kyoshi moved up to his throat, which to her disgust looked as if a melon had been smashed open, spattered pieces lain about the area. Creating almost a new bone structure was harder, as the small, delicate bones in the throat could not be handled roughly- physically or mentally. But the bones rose up like steeples and curved, intertwining themselves with each other under her watchful eye.

And when it was finished, slight scars running between Charles's scales the only remnant of the healing, the Persian felt a heavy sense of weariness and stepped back as the dragon suddenly sat up and gasped for air, falling back down again when he realized his limbs were too weak.

"Thank you, Mew," Charles murmured in such a weak voice that even Kyoshi had trouble hearing, "for killing me."

"You're not dead, silly!" Phil cried exuberantly, rapping his fins around the dragon's neck and giving him a heartfelt hug. "HORRAY!"

Charles blinked, confused, and shook his head to clear his thoughts. He positioned himself in a sitting position. "But…but I just went through this…pain…so cold…" he shivered and unleashed a ribbon of smoke from his nostrils. "And…the water…ice cold water…and something tore my ribs apart…does _anyone_ believe me?"

"Charles, I healed you with my Physic powers," Kyoshi explained slowly. Perhaps something had happened to his mind. "You've been lying here the entire time."

"Really…?" He smiled and rubbed his throat, a glazed look of amazement crossing his draconian face. "That's incredible! I'm alive! I'm really alive! Kyoshi!" The Charizard grabbed the Persian and pulled her into a hug. Phil clapped his fins exuberantly and babbled on about the power of love, just as a sudden earthquake ripped through the floor, almost killing all three of them.

How apropos.

It literally ripped through the ground, pushing up broken tiles, rocks, and jagged stalactites. Dust immediately swept through the area and Kyoshi instinctively grabbed Phil in her teeth before Charles swept them up under his arm.

"Charles," the Persian cried as the dragon unfurled his wings and began to beat them furiously, clearing away wisps of dust, "the healing might not be stable yet! You- you might fall in midair!"

The Charizard ignored her and pushed off the ground, swooping into the air. His wings acted as a parachute-like device and jerked them to a halt in the air as Charles quickly began to rise in altitude. "I feel great, actually. Great as I _can_ be right now. I'll be fine."

Kyoshi mewed and felt a great weakness sweep over her body. "But-"

"Do you _want_ to die?" Charles snapped.

"No, but-"

"Then I'd appreciate if you'd stop worrying about me."

Phil pointed at something. "Guys! Guys…it's the Nidoking!"

As the two older Pokémon looked over to see the behemoth coming towards them, away from the Rhydon and Nidoqueen, the earthquake reached terrifying proportions until the stalactites were pouring down like rain- a torrent of daggers.

"I HOPE THE GYM DOESN'T COLAPSE!" the Marshtomp yelled over the roars of the Nidoking and the pelting down of stalactites. A stalactite suddenly impaled itself in Phil's fin, and the mudfish screamed with not only pain but with fright, as he toppled off Charles's back and into the hell below.

"_PHIL_!" the Persian cried as she saw the Pokémon tumbling to the ground below. The Nidoking instantly sought out his prey and began snarling and spitting, the deadly pins on his back prickling outwards. "Oh my Mew, Charles! Fly down! Fly down!"

"I _CAN'T_!" From above, Charles circled around Nidoking's head, sending futile slashes at the beast's thick hide, although it did not do much. A quick tongue of flame here, a slash there- nothing seemed to affect him at all. Nidoking was becoming more and more agitated by the interruptions that he paused to lunge his head at Charles. The dragon took his moment to counter back and exhale a terrific burst of flames, lashing out at the behemoth with a demented glow around Nidoking's face. And suddenly, one of the dancing wisps ignited on Nidoking's eye…and there was sickening, wet, popping noise as the eye ruptured and eye-liquid sprayed across the fire. The behemoth's scream became high and shrill and it pawed at its eye-socket, allowing the two Pokémon a glimpse of the black, empty socket surrounded by a thick rim of yellowish gunk.

"Oh," Kyoshi said softly.

Charles turned a bit green. "Urgh…stupid queasiness," he whispered furiously to himself. Far out of Nidoking's reach, the Charizard dove down closer to the ground in order to seek out the Marshtomp. The mounds of debris undulated and curved in a puzzling maze, but Charles's claws barely skimmed the earth as he kept a low train of flight.

The dragon perked his non-existent ears up. "Charles? CHARLES!" The childish voice came from below in the receding earthquake; Phil suddenly erupted from the rocks and shook his head, scattering clouds of dust. "Help!"

Kyoshi breathed a large sigh of relief as they touched down next to Phil, who quickly scampered on Charles's back and gave each of them a hug. "Thank Mew…," she whispered.

"Mew abandoned us in the Berry Forest," Charles muttered. "I don't think we should be saying: 'Thank Mew' anymore."

With a quick jerk, the Persian tugged the stalactite from Phil's moist fin and tossed it aside. Her paw hovered over the wound again, but this time a smaller wound was surprisingly harder and closed up slowly. The Marshtomp rubbed his fin when Kyoshi was finished and frowned- but a smile appeared on his face and he gave her another hug. "We'll just have to make up a new phrase," he giggled.

"Maybe later. Right now, I think we should help Ellen while we still have a chance." They rose into the air once again, wings beating mightily, and circled the area. Charles nodded across the Gym after a few minutes of scouting. "There. The Rhydon and Nidoqueen."

"Are Ellen and Feolan okay?" Phil asked.

Kyoshi craned her next to see and inhaled sharply when she saw the huddled body on the floor, shivering with pain. Giovanni appeared to be taunting her as Feolan lashed out against the Nidoqueen. Suddenly, the bipedal creature caught Feolan in her jaws and shook the Mightyena. She let go and he dropped to the floor, howling hysterically before Nidoqueen picked him up and slammed him into the wall. "Mmm…not that I want to worry you, but Ellen and Feolan are a bit hurt…"

"You can heal them," Charles added quickly.

"It's getting harder…" the Persian admitted. "I…maybe I'm just worn out."

"THEY'RE GOING TO DIE!" he wailed, shedding tears.

Charles snorted. "No they are _not_."

"WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" Phil cried again.

The mudfish pointed to Nidoking. The behemoth hunched over and darted its beady eye around when suddenly it locked onto the hovering dragon. In one quick movement, he lashed his tail back again and swung it out like a mace, narrowly avoiding Charles. The Charizard went through a moment of terror as he remembered his mutilated body after the first collision with Nidoking's tail. Charles positioned himself in a standing position in the air and began to beat his wings. For some time, all it did was collect small particles of dust, but it seemed that two small tornadoes were being created in the wind patterns, and before the ground-Pokémon could react, two mini-tornados were sent at him.

Both hit him on the snout- he made a particular whining sound of displeasure and snorted. And when they expected him to erupt into fury…it seemed the Pokémon was almost grinning now with a display of brown-tinted incisors. With a look of deranged excitement, Nidoking began oozing purple goop from the mouth, occasionally opening his mouth and gagging a large chunk of a pulpy carcass onto the floor.

"The _hell_?" Charles asked.

"Huh?" Phil responded.

Kyoshi's answer was barely above of whisper. "Oh…it's toxic…its poison…oh my Mew…"

Nidoking retched up more and more poison from the bowels of who-knows-where like a grotesque, bubbling geyser.

Suddenly, he stopped.

Although neither Charles nor Nidoking had studied any sort of chemical reactions in Kanto, the outcome of two attacks seemed to decide the fate of Ellen and co. Nidoking ceased gathering poison and just stood amongst the rubble, letting the venom drip onto basically everything. Then suddenly, like a bullet, the behemoth spat a blob of poison up at Charles.

Just as the Ground-type proceeded to shoot the poison, the Charizard inhaled deeply and drew his neck forward to unleash a blast of flame that lit up the Gym with an intense burst of luminosity. Fire and Poison- the flamethrower sped towards the Nidoking as the look on its face turned grave. When the fire and Nidoking met, there was a quick, almost whispering noise, and there was a great explosion.

It was a horrible sight. Fire burst up into the air in a churning mass of white-hot energy and soon caught onto the poison, quickly boiling to the point where it ate through the Nidoking's jaw. The fire ravaged the behemoth, sparking, as Nidoking writhed with agony, a burning effigy, and unleashed a multitude of roars. The pinpoints charred and shriveled to nothingness, the ash sweeping away as the flames devoured the armored hide, taking no time to pause for a moment and let the Pokémon have relief. The skin began to peel back from the face as the other eyeball popped open. Some of the bones in the chest cavity crumbled up; the body could not hold its own weight and collapsed within itself, spewing out smoldering entrails and various half-digested things such as human corpses with some of the skin peeled off and Pokémon cadavers horribly mutilated. It seemed everything was deteriorating and now the heart could be seen smoldering, the lungs ruptured, scorched, and…

Satisfied with their revenge, the flames slowly left only a pile of black bones, billowing smoke. In the middle was the dementedly snarling skull of Nidoking, eye sockets shadowy holes. Dead.

Phil vomited over the side of Charles, but the Charizard did not notice.

The dragon only burped up a small wisp of flame and sheepishly said, "Excuse me."

OoO

It was a pity that Giovanni had not noticed Phil falling off Charles before, because the Boss might have been able to stop the unfortunate incidents that would occur in the near future. Yet, instead of keeping an eye on the clever Pokémon, he watched with delight the heroic (yet futile) tries of Feolan as he pitted against Nidoqueen.

Ellen lay quietly on the ground. She could have moved if she wanted despite her broken arm and ankle, but it was much safer to stay where she was. Besides, the Anti-Trainer could not have helped Feolan even if she tried. The Nidoqueen would destroy her in only seconds flat. It seemed the only figure in the room she could really fight against was Giovanni, but her strength was greatly outmatched compared to his.

Another component of Ellen's uncomfortable position was the presence of the Rhydon, who leaned its head down to her eye-level and peered at her curiously. The Rhydon's eyes were large, slightly slanted, like that of a hawk's eyes, and the maroon irises slowly disappeared as the pupils dilated when the scent of blood caught the air. Ellen winced as the rhinoceros parted its jaws a bit and uttered a low-pitched whine, but for reasons unknown to the girl. Despite her having Pokémon Speech Disorder, this sort of whine was simply a vocal expression of curiosity or whatever feelings the Rhydon expressed.

Rhydon slowly stood up again, casting her a fleeting expression before turning its head to Giovanni and whining again. The Boss did not seem to notice and continued to watch the fight with mild amusement.

"_Damn_," Ellen whispered under her breath as Giovanni turned to acknowledge Rhydon finally.

Although he accredited the Pokémon, the Boss still had no clue as to what it wanted. "What's that? I am not a freak like the Anti-Trainer. I _can't_ understand you…" the Rhydon barred its teeth. "Oh, of course. You're hungry. Well, we can't ignore that." With a smile directed at the girl, he said haughtily, "I suppose this is your hour, Fiery Sapphire. It's would have been nicer with a slower death, but one needs to take advantage of things like this. I just hope you're not squeamish. Goodby-"

"_YYYEEEEEEOOOOWWWWCCCCCHHHH_!"

Both Ellen and Giovanni's heads snapped up to identify where the sound came from, and soon realized that Feolan had made the shriek of pain. The albino Mightyena was twitching on the ground, emitting howls of displeasure. The Nidoqueen standing above him seemed to be gnawing on something white and bushy.

Feolan threw his head back and yelled, "SHE BIT MY TAIL OFF!" As he got to his feet, brushing a tear from his eye, there indeed was a lack of tail, for all that was left was a stout, bloody stump. "This is so humiliating…this is so humiliating…this is so hum- ACK!" Nidoqueen swept Feolan up in her claw and slammed him against the wall, letting his body drop where it lay limp.

The Anti-Trainer tried to leap to her feet, only to experience a jolt of pain through her body. Giovanni laughed darkly. "It's been too long, Fiery Sapphire. More than a month, I've been deprived of seeing you suffer. In years gone by, it's been the _other_ Anti-Trainers I've seen suffer- Red…Crystal…Gold…Silver…" he paused.

Ellen resisted the urge to shout out her parents names, for it most likely would be the death of her.

"Seeing you dogs in pain brings me pleasure. In the past, the Anti-Trainers of my generation, and now _you_. To see your enemies writhe at your feet…that is the ultimate triumph." He smiled and closed his eyes for a moment. "And I have achieved it."

"All you've 'achieved' is tormenting a bunch of people," Ellen fired back viciously, positioning her good elbow on the ground so that she was facing Giovanni. "You just prey on weaker people."

"It's your fault for being so incompetent," he spat. "Think of it as this. I protect Kanto from the overpopulation of rebels like you."

Ellen snarled, "Rebels that're stopping _you_! _You're_ the one who should be killed! Greedy bastard…" she beat her fist on the ground.

Giovanni's dark eyes shone with malice as he commented his next lines. "You, by far, are one of the most unintelligent Anti-Trainers I have ever fought against. I should have snapped your neck when I had the chance."

"But you _didn't_," the Anti-Trainer taunted.

"Well…I will NOW!"

Just before the Boss reacted there was a burst of light from across the Gym, and an intense heat swept over the area.

Nidoqueen was the first to see. Her eyes popped open to extreme proportions and opened her mouth to roar, but nothing came out. It was hard to decipher, but there was something terribly sad in her eyes as the Nidoking was slowly roasted in the blazing fire. Even through both Nidos were ruthlessly vicious, it seemed that their brainwashed state gave a certain sympathetic quality to them, as opposed to the naturally virulent Rhydon.

"_NO_!" Giovanni screamed in a furious passion. "NO! GODAMNIT! MY NIDOKING!"

"Go…Charles…" Feolan mumbled as he realized his right leg had crumbled into tiny fragments of bone.

The Boss wheeling around on his heel and pointed at Ellen, his expression a vast hell. He screamed, "_YOU_! You _BITCH_! I'LL KILL YOU! _I'LL KILL YOU_! RHYDON, _HORN DRILL_!"

Rhydon snapped to attention and could almost be seen grinning viciously, anticipating whatever brutal act in could commit. The giant drill-horn on its head suddenly began to whirl rapidly until it was only a blur. With a jerk of its head, Rhydon plunged its drill downwards…

…and drove it into Ellen's stomach.

The drill immediately stabbed through the Anti-Trainers ribs and stomach with ease, and the hellish screams began. The ribs could not resist in any way and snapped all at once before the rib bones contorted and pieced through Ellen's side as blood seeped against the bright white of the cartilage. The spleen ruptured first, the mottled purple and gray organ burst like a balloon and sent a fresh wave of blood pouring out onto to the floor, on which the Rhydon paused to lap up. Next, the drill pierced the stomach and caused acid to eat away flesh around the huge wounds, devouring sinew and muscle. The drill continued to expand the gaping hole until all that was left of Ellen's lower torso was a pulpy, blood-soaked hole of pink, raw tissue and spattered entrails, the occasional bone sticking outwards.

Ellen no longer thought correctly, she no longer had any sense of time or space. No vision, no sound – only deep, raw pain that punctured every nerve in her body. The Anti-Trainer no longer felt any emotion. The hate for the Boss dissipated, the sadness of seeing Charles dying was wiped away, the anger she had experienced throughout her entire life, the small bouts of happiness that had come about occasionally. Gone. They were replaced by a new, ferocious emotion. Pain.

Giovanni could be seen roaring with laughter, a thing that he did not do too often. He found Ellen's anguished face and her painful shrieks extremely enjoyable to watch, and with it, he felt that not only was he torturing _one_ Anti-Trainer, but also soon would be torturing _many_ once they found of the girl's death. Blood spattered onto his expensive shoes, dark and crimson. The Boss of Team Rocket scoffed loudly. Pig's blood.

Finally, Rhydon bellowed with complainant and flattened its small ears back against its head when the girl's tortured screams became irritating. It yanked its horn from the body, tearing out several other innards including the liver. The Anti-Trainer's face was devoid of any color, ghostly white, and she lay on her back with both arms tangled out in inhuman positions. Her right hand, the only good hand, was digging into the cement between the black tiles and peeling holes in her ripped-up gloves, which eventually fell away from her hands. The screams had subsided and all that was heard was ragged breathing, ragged breathing, and the low chuckle of Giovanni.

"Fiery Sapphire…" he began, pitiless, "how much pain you've experienced. It will be over soon, you know. All over. It didn't have to come down to this; you could have given up in the Game Corner. But…I suppose you had so much vigor in you. You were…so excited to meet Rayquaza." The Boss broke into a wide grin, but as he glared at Ellen and stooped down beside her, the grin turned into a scowl. His voice became cold and quiet. "I'm going to tell you something. Something that will break you even more than what just happened…Your 'quest', implied by a scientific paper titled _The Rayquaza Document_: to collect the badges and become the Champion…to find Rayquaza atop the Sky Tower…" he smiled, "was created by Team Rocket as a buyer of time. It is a fake document, make especially for people like you. _Rayquaza does not exist_. Your journey had _absolutely no point whatsoever_."

Far into the recesses of Ellen's decaying mind, the Anti-Trainer was screaming. She knew it was true- the look on Giovanni's face was pure triumph- pure malevolence as he watched the realization appear. Waves of memories came back to her…all the Gym battles…all the fights…_WORTHLESS_! There was no hope for the Anti-Trainers. Without Rayquaza, they were nothing…there was no use living any longer.

The Anti-Trainer began to cry, although due to the hole in her lower torso, her diaphragm was acting strangely, and the spasmodic coughs dissipated, replaced just by quiet tears. It felt as if she had been sliced in half, except in some way she was still alive.

"You finally cry. The second time, I believe…Because you're going to die, I'm sure you won't mind me taking something of yours…" Giovanni reached for her chest and Ellen froze up with fear. But there was a quiet snapping noise. The Anti-Trainer saw something golden semi-floating above her. The necklace that now the Boss was dangling in front of Ellen's face was dented and bloodstained, but still held a faint glimmer.

"Nooooo," Ellen rasped, devoid of any expression besides her tears. "Kay…kade…en…Kade…en…Ka-" she paused to turn her head to the side and cough blood. "-den."

There seemed to be a pause; Giovanni stared at her for what seemed like hours. His face was severe. Ellen was vaguely aware that her eyeballs were beginning to roll back into her skull, and she quickly focused them again. Finally, Giovanni murmured, "So the dogs spawned. Kaden is your father."

"Emm-hmm…" she answered dully.

Suddenly, the Boss unleashed a cry of anger and slapped her across the face. "Kaden…what a goddamn _BASTARD_! Now I see why you're so stupid, so ugly, so _pathetic_. Imagine. Completely and utterly full of shit. Ah…what resemblance! How cute," he snarled, bringing his face closer. He paused to draw a thin line of blood across Ellen's forehead and paused for a moment. "Wait…what's this? Gray eyes? So Fredia is the bitch! You must be wonder how I could distinguish Fredia's features, correct? Well, I'll tell you. Did you know I once tried to rape her? It didn't work, though. Yes, I had already immobilized Kaden by breaking his leg and piecing his side with a shard of glass…and he had to watch me from the ground, _bleeding_. Bleeding and cursing me- and crying Fredia's name. I thought she was very nice-looking. Kaden really loved her, it seemed. And then they decided to hitch and reproduce AND THEY GOT _YOU_. Such an image of your father, hmm? Your daddy must have been so proud of you. So _proud_. You're very much like him, really. Why, both of you have seen people suffer, both of you have been in pain, _both of you have been hunted down like animals, BOTH OF YOU HAVE MURDERED!_"

By now, Giovanni had grabbed Ellen's shoulder and were shaking them furiously, screaming his words at the Anti-Trainers face. He cursed the Anti-Trainers rapidly, in both Italian and English, tormenting the poor girl.

Ellen felt herself slipping away from life.

What happened next was purely a twist of fate, although when it seemed that even when things looked bright and it seemed that the chapter would end up in a boring state, it turns out it does not.

It seemed that absolutely everything was dark for the Anti-Trainer, despite her eyes being wide open and glassy. The air smelled thick and musty, clogged with blood to create a heavy stench wavering about the Gym. And although her sight was impaired, her hearing was as sharp as ever, and hearing through Giovanni's curses she could hear something else…was it wing beats?

The noise got louder, and louder, and louder, and_ louder_, and abruptly she realized that it _was_ wing beats. In fact, there were practically in front of her as the air slashed and ripped against the giant wings, sending small puffs to stir up the dust floating about. Giovanni suddenly screamed — and his hands tore away from her shoulders. There was slight reverberation as something landed very near Ellen, and a burst of hot air blew her face. Although she did not realize it, Charles and the other two Pokémon were crowded around her, while Feolan groaned and rose from his bed of dirt, shaking the grime off his fur and mumbling furiously.

"Is she…dead?" Charles asked quietly, ignoring Giovanni's enraged screams as the Charizard dug his claws into one of the Boss's arms.

Kyoshi slunk around Ellen and bit, narrowing her eyes carefully as she tested out a bit of healing, snapping the Anti-Trainer's nose back into place with a twist of her wrist (and a bit of Physic powers). "No, but she's a vegetable."

"Vegetable?" Charles cried, terrified. He whipped his head around to face Giovanni. The Charizard snarled wildly. "You, _sir_, deserve to die a long and slow death."

"A vegetable for now," the Persian said, shrugging, "until I heal her, at least."

Phil tapped both Charles and Kyoshi. "Guys…have you noticed that there's a Nidoqueen and a Rhydon staring at us?"

True to his words, both Ground-types were looming over them; deranged expressions on their faces, and Giovanni took this moment to cry, "Rhydon, body slam the Charizard!" Like a pile of bricks, the Rhydon slammed into Charles with a force unable to be withstood, and both Pokémon tumbled across the floor. Giovanni fell to the ground and ducked next to Nidoqueen before realizing Feolan was standing behind him.

The Mightyena looked up at the Boss and frowned, his mind still foggy from the head-on collision. "Hey…what _happened_?"

Nidoqueen turned around to glare at him.

"Damn!" Feolan shouted, a wave of memories washing back into him. The behemoth swung her claw around to catch him but he quickly backed against the wall. Feolan whipped his head around, mind frozen with worry. What's a Mightyena to do in this situation? "Umm…" he paused to think of some stereotypical phrase that usually make an attack hit with deadly accuracy and conjured up something to the effect of, "THIS IS FOR ADORA," despite his Mightyena girlfriend being well and alive. Feolan paused to collect dark matter from around him, which usually can be found in old cigarette butts, and fired a large, shadowy sphere at Nidoqueen with a shrill victory cry.

The Shadow Ball paused in mid-air and fizzled on the ground, finally sputtering out with a small burping sound.

"Oh shit," Feolan muttered.

Just as it seemed that the Mightyena would reach his untimely and fairly disappointing demise, a blast of water came streaming at the Nidoqueen's face and hit her square in the eye as her piecing shriek filled the air. Giovanni backed away from the behemoth as she stumbled around for a bit, bellowing.

"WHO _DID_ THAT?" the Boss howled.

"_I_ did!" a voice cried, and Phil appeared, standing on a large mound of rocks triumphantly. "You're no match for _me_, Philip of Silph Co! Now you can _meet your doom_, Giov- _MEEP!_" Nidoqueen simply lunged her head down and snapped her jaws, tearing off Phil's large fin that attached to his head. Blood instantly spurted from the flat shelf of bone, and Phil began to cry loudly, tumbling off the mound.

Feolan groaned.

OoO

Meanwhile, Kyoshi sucked in her breath and exhaled slowly, tensions wracked with anxiety. Bile entered her throat, but she ignored it. _The worst thing I can do right now is be sick_, she thought furiously, her paw hovering hesitantly over the bloody hole that was Ellen's lower torso. Slowly she constructed the fragments of backbone that were jammed into the gore, the fragments eerily levitating in the air before rushing down to resume their original place. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Of course, this time it was not just repairing skin and bones. Ellen's wrecked lower torso did not only hold blood, but ruptured organs as well. Kyoshi clenched her teeth together. Ew. She started up on the ribs, finding stray bones, discovering that the Rhydon had eaten some bones in the process and that her ribs did not fit together all that correctly. It was a puzzle with jagged pieces – she forced the ribs to close with an outer protection of tissue despite the fragileness of the frame.

All three battles continued. It was a flurry of excitement in the Gym. Roars and screams of aggravation, slashes and bites, the snap of a bone forming back into place. All of these sounds mixed in a hellish haze of chaos, reverberating from the glistening stalactites to the dark Earth below.

OoO

Dust kicked op into the air as Rhydon grunted with stress to pick up a large boulder from the ground, only to heave in at Charles seconds later. The Charizard parried the attack with a blast of flame, although the fire did nothing to stop the boulder and it collided into him with a thud.

This could take a while.

OoO

Both Feolan and Phil backed up against the jagged, earthen wall, emitting nervous gulping noises. Nidoqueen advanced on them, almost grinning. Nidoqueen seemed to contract some sort of energy from above, as she was staring upwards in a fit of concentration. There was an eerie glow about her, and light was radiating around her claws.

OoO

Kyoshi's breath became ragged as she checked her surroundings to make sure Feolan was not getting to close to her. No – the Mightyena was standing afar. Good.

Ellen was almost healed, and the feline's paws in shaking in fear that she would cause something horrible to happen. There were a few minor alterations to the Anti-Trainer's anatomy, such as she no longer had a spleen, as Kyoshi could not afford the time or strength to recreate and reshape all the organs. Chips of bone were missing from her backbone, and several other abnormal Physic surgery mishaps were present. At last, tissue began to construct itself over the bloody tear and finally sealed up, leaving several scars and odd incisions in the Anti-Trainer's torso.

"Ellen, wake _up_!" Kyoshi exclaimed.

Instead of the simply sitting up, smiling, and giving and receiving hugs from Kyoshi, Ellen's dead eyes slowly faded into focus again and she blinked rapidly, clearing the dust from her eyes. She had not gotten up from the ground yet, and after looking at Kyoshi, flicked her eyes around the room, speechless.

Suddenly, thoughts of the recent past pounded her brain, and her face contorted into a mask of sorrow before curling up into a ball and dissolving into tears.

OoO

Charles had left Rhydon behind with a push off the ground and a beat of his wings. The Charizard soared above the battle, picking out the various figures below. He saw many things, many things passing in hazy eyesight. Two of those things disturbed him greatly, one being a blurry lump that was Ellen. Charles grinned when he realized that Kyoshi had healed the Anti-Trainer. He swept down to them and landed with a thud next to the Persian, who regarded him with a mix of joy and uncertainty.

"Good job," Charles said, patting Kyoshi awkwardly on the back. "I...um…good job."

The feline also patted his arm (awkwardly, of course) in return. "Thank you." She then slowly removed her paw from his arm and huddled beside Ellen, saying gently, "I…I know this is hard, but we should keep moving, as Giovanni will notice soon that you're healed…"

Charles sidled up next to Kyoshi. "Maybe we should retreat."

"We er' _not_ runnin' awhay," Ellen finally slurred. Her voice and body were considerably weak, but she managed to sit up. "That bashtard Giovaaannii. I got uh freeching bone ta pichik wif _him_. I-" her hand suddenly reached her neck. "Wha…where's my necklashce? Giovanni!" Her voice became stronger, more defined. "Giovanni!"

She began to rise on her shaky legs when Charles tugged on her arm, his face expressionless. "I suggest you zip up your jacket. You shirt is sort of…barely there."

Ellen did so and rose again, examining several of aspects of the healing process such as scars and punctures. "Whoa…I…but…something happened to me…"

"The Rhydon drilled a giant hole through your stomach and in the process ate several of your internal organs. But Kyoshi healed you," Charles explained as-a-matter-of-factly. "I can understand why you can't remember…much to excruciating. You probably passed out half-way through."

The Anti-Trainer shook her head. "No I _didn't_. I remember. Believe me…_GIOVANNI_!"

For a moment, the Boss did not respond, and then it hit him. He whipped around, although they could not see his expression. The giant glow surrounding the Nidoqueen's claws had brightened considerably, and the light that surrounded Giovanni gave him a demonic appearance, all while turning him into a unclear, shadowy figure.

"GIOVANNI!" she roared again. Ellen began to walk forward, followed by her two Pokémon as they traveled through the barren ground-desert just as they had traveled through so many difficulties in their journey. All for nothing. Absolutely nothing. There was no end, nor was there a beginning, as the Anti-Trainers had begun long before Ellen existed. There was a middle, of course, but it was a corrupted sort of something. Through toils and fights, from scientists to Meowths to the vulgar Mew, it was winding down to the end, although that was not possible. As stated before, it seemed there _would_ be no end.

AND THEN IT ENDED.

Not the journey, per say, but as Ellen advanced on Giovanni, both enemy's faces full of hatred for one another, the Boss did not say anything directly to the Anti-Trainer but simply turned to Nidoqueen and remarked, "_Superpower_. The Anti-Trainer."

The glow from the Nidoqueen's claws flickered a moment and accumulated a faint, metallic humming noise that reverberated against the stalactites, creating a multitude of that very sound. The smell of blood in the air – the eerie humming – the glow was becoming brighter. And that phrase, 'AND THEN IT ENDED,' occurred only a few seconds afterwards as a huge glowing orb erupted from the Nidoqueen's claws and continued to grow in size until it imploded within itself. And there was a huge rush of light as Feolan jumped forward and slammed into Nidoqueen. She stumbled back only a little, and the imploded orb suddenly grew to an immense size and exploded with a fantastic booming noise that consumed the whole Gym with a bath of light and small fiery particles. The stalactites held their piecing ring and it seemed they were screaming as if in horrible pain, as the surging mounds of earth churned and rumbled across the barren Gym floor.

Immediately the Nidoqueen was incinerated by her own attack, the fiery blast ripping away layers of tissue and scorching her bones until the behemoth was nothing but a pile of ash.

Ellen waited for the searing pain to rip through her body when the explosion reached them, just as the Rhydon's drill mangled her with pain as her nerves seemed to tear apart. The Gym had erupted into a fiery hell, and when it seemed her whole being would dissipated by the heat, two strong claws picked her up and flew both her and Kyoshi straight up in the air.

As the Charizard spiraled into the air, the blistering explosion licking his scales almost sensually, the scorching wind tore at their endurance as if it wanted nothing more than to envelop them. Charles flew across the Gym to where the pile of ash that once was the Nidoqueen lay. Although the reverberations of the explosion left violent phenomena, the Nidoqueen's attack had misfired onto to have it rebound on herself.

Kyoshi sniffed the ashes and wrinkled up her nose. "Ugh…I…_wait_. Where _is_ everyone? Where's Phil and Feolan? Oh my-"

"Present," a trembling voice said, and from a large pile of rubble came Phil, his amphibious body covered by soot and several burns, not to mention the chopped-off cranial fin. The Marshtomp looked horribly distressed and as he stumbled towards them, it was plain that he was trembling. "I- I-" he paused and waddled over to Kyoshi before the Persian wrapped him in a hug.

Feolan appeared moments later and he too seemed shaken, but the oddest thing about him was that some of the fire had burned through some of his thick fur and left the Mightyena with patches of furless, white, skin. "H-holy _shit_," he muttered.

"Well," Charles said, sighing, "let's just be thankful that we're all alive."

Interrupting the seemingly heartwarming moment, Ellen suddenly whipped her head around and asked loudly, "Where'd Giovanni go? _Where'd Giovanni go?_" She did a complete twirl and then looked up at the ceiling, crying, "HOT _DAMN_!"

The Superpower attack was powerful enough so that a gigantic hole had bored through the layers of earth above, which was not that much, and through it, they could see the faint outline of a pterodactyl creature swooping away.

"HE FLED!" Ellen screamed again, a piecing shriek. "HE RAN WAY! Damn coward…mothe-" she paused, not only taking back her last curse, but to remember something else. "Wait…he has _my_ necklace!"

"It doesn't matter," Charles said hotly, "we need to get you home, pronto."

The Anti-Trainer glared. "But we should _follow him_! He- he…this might be our chance to win!"

"Are you out of your mind?" Kyoshi gestured to Phil behind his back. "Do you recall? Think about Phil. He's just a Marshtomp. He's terrified."

"No!" Phil suddenly burst out. "Don't let me slow you down! I'm grown-up now, honestly!"

Kyoshi shook her head in dismay and made several choked attempts of disapproval, but before she could even begin speaking, everyone assembled on the dragon and he launched into rapid flight with a burst of speed. The Gym passed by in a blur as the group left the destroyed building behind. As Pallet Town, the 'dreaded' hometown residing on the cliffs of the Kanto Sea, the churning, gray waves broke against the jagged cliffs, violently tumbling the Shellder that clung to the rocks into the sea below. The sky was dank and overcast, just as the morning dawn broke across the horizon in a flurry of muted grays, yellows, and pinks. The cliffs gave way to a huge, open space of air where the Kanto Sea ravaged and crashed, and a distant shape of gray and black nightmarishly floated through the sky.

The rocky crags below were far behind them in no time at all. Now, below them was a vast, gray, sea, waves whipping across the current. The Kanto Sea was so dark, so devoid of life that it looked as if the water killed anything that entered it. A few Wingulls wheeled in the strong air currents, circling the Charizard curiously but never daring to glide any closer. Giovanni and his Aerodactyl were getting clearer now- they could see the outline of the ancient pterodactyl and its master fly smoothly through the skies.

"Should we stay _invisible_, if you catch my drift?" Charles asked over the screaming winds, turning his head around to face them. He winced when he turned his neck, but quickly regained control.

"Yes," Kyoshi answered curtly, obviously no longer concerned with revenge. She pawed at her fur that was plastered back. "I don't want to get into another situation in the Gym. It was…painful."

Ellen averted her eyes and looked down at the sea. "For me."

"For Charles, too," the Persian added, patting her close companion awkwardly on the wing. "Um, do you need me to check your injuries for you? Because, you know, you can't be too careful…"

"Oh, right. Uh, the right crest on my head sort of hurts," the dragon lied (awkwardly) and turned back to the direction they were flying. "Now…where'd Giovanni go?" The Charizard inspected the stormy ocean below, musing over the proposition that the Boss fell to his death, and looked up in the air, wondering if he had somehow teleported away.

Something incredibly large and powerful suddenly tore for Charles's throat, and the Charizard felt the same sense of dread when the Nidoking had crushed him against the wall. As its jaw clamped around his neck, the Charizard snapped his neck back to do a complete flip in the air, both detaching himself from the something and almost throwing his passengers off his back. There were several cries of protest, but they quickly silenced as the passengers saw their attackers, Giovanni and his Aerodactyl, circling them around them slowly, the Wingulls scattering with shrill squawks of alarm.

"You should have known you couldn't just follow me without getting caught," Giovanni smirked in the same arrogant way, obviously ignoring the fact that his nose was broken and blood had dried over almost over his chin, his scalp had bloody puncture wounds, and his arms had large gashes in them. "You had a drill impaled through you, you're healed, and you come back for more. Are you trying to prove that you're superior to me? Do you still want the badge? Would you like to try and find Rayquaza again?" He roared with icy laughter. "_No_ – you want me to tell you more about the Anti-Trainers, correct? Would you like to hear more of what I told you before? Really, it's no problem at all."

"I want the necklace," the Anti-Trainer spat brusquely. It then came to her that even if she did follow Giovanni, she would have no chance of even getting close to her goal. The Team Rocket Headquarters doubtlessly was filled with Grunts and Executives, Grunts with their sinister, drawn look about them and their sexually suggestive uniforms reeking of fresh leather and some sort of expensive fragrance. And the Executives of affluence, of power, the embodiment of Team Rocket with crisp black suits, skimpy dresses, and fine wine.

The gray Aerodactyl slowly came to a hover in front of the group and observed the Charizard with piecing red eyes as the Boss fumbled for something in his pocket and produced the infamous necklace, smiling as he saw Ellen's eyes go wide. "Fine. You can take it, you know. Just hold out your hand."

Ellen slowly extended her arm, keeping her eyes focused on the gleaming necklace. Feolan grabbed her arm and tugged it back painfully just as Giovanni jolted to seize her arm and drop her into the water below. The Boss glared fiercely at her before throwing the necklace at her. She scrabbled greedily to catch it and placed it around her neck again.

"I don't see why you want it," he announced carelessly, smoothing back his ebony hair. "You know I'll just remove it from your dismembered corpse soon." He paused, and without warning roared, "AERODACTYL, ANCIENTPOWER!"

"FLY!" Ellen screamed to Charles, beating her fist against his back, and the dragon shot off like a bullet just as the pterodactyl materialized a large, glowing fossil and rammed it forward. The floating boulder sailed through the air and struck Charles in the hind leg, giving him a large welt.

From behind them, the Anti-Trainer could hear Giovanni's spiteful laughter as they soared across the blank sky, twisting and turning through the air, swooping and plunging. The Boss followed in a deranged game of Cat and Mouse, the Fossil Pokémon mimicking Charles's every move. Sometimes, Aerodactyl would fly ahead and suddenly appear in front of the Charizard, causing him to roar in fury and do a complete back flip in the air, a graceful attempt for a normally clumsy Pokémon. Other times the enemies would follow close behind, or Giovanni would fly up beside them and shout cruel words, many of which had to do with Ellen and the Anti-Trainers.

Ellen would shut her eyes and cling tightly to Charles's neck, often shedding confused, troubled tears. For all those times she had battled Team Rocket, this was the most frightening. Something in her mind split. Perhaps it was the truth of Rayquaza, or perhaps almost dying under the drill of Rhydon, but the girl was terrified now. Looking deep inside her mind, it was truthfully the journey all together- the toil and struggle she went through entirely for no reason.

She was so distraught that she did not notice Charles tilting his flight pattern upwards and ascending into the dense, murky clouds, the wispy air swathing them in cool mist. All of Kanto became silent in the haze. The sea was no longer visible; an entire kingdom of clouds spanned the world, a heaven of soft fog.

"Uh…Ellen?" Feolan asked, gently shaking her with his furless paw. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she murmured, loosening her grip from the Charizard's neck and sitting up, wiping the tears from her eyes and observing their surroundings. She sucked in her breath with awe, reaching out to touch one of the clouds only to have it dissipate in her hand. "Whoa…"

Kyoshi looked around uneasily. "Um, I'm sorry to say that this is no time to be admiring clouds when were being hunted down. We don't even know where we are."

The Mightyena scoffed at her. "Well, _you're_ the Physic one. You should know."

"_For the last time. Just because I'm Physic doesn't mean I have a GOOD SENSE OF DIRECTION_!" The Persian yowled, and clamped both paws over her mouth, a regretful look creeping into her feline face. "Oh, Ellen…I'm so sorry…oh no…oh no…"

There was a faint disturbance of the clouds below as Aerodactyl and Giovanni slithered through the fog, cutting through it with ease with a sweep of the Fossil Pokémon's lithe wings. It was obvious they did not notice them, though, as the Boss was sitting high upon his Pokémon, looking about casually.

"Fiery Sapphire…" he crooned in a sing-song voice. "Fiery Sapphire…come out…wouldn't it be nice to end this? I promise it will be quick if you surrender now…I want to kill you. Kill you as a warning to all Anti-Trainers. Kill you so I may be content."

"Frickin' bastard…has to go torment people _mumble mumble_ does he think up these in his spare time _mumble mumble_," Feolan garbled under his breath.

"Watch this," Charles whispered, and dove downwards. A pillar of flame erupted from his open mouth and instantly set fire to the Rocket and his Pokémon; Giovanni began to scream when he held up his arm to eye level only to see the dried gashes burst open and rupture simmering blood. Aerodactyl stiffed in the air and without warning dropped like a stone, disappearing out of the clouds and falling, falling, completely still even as the flaming Boss thrashed about on her back. There was a distant splashing noise, and no more.

Phil asked, "Is he dead?"

"I don't care. Let's just get out of here. This was stupid." Ellen averted Phil and the rest of the group from peering downwards, but spared a moment to gaze through the clouds and into the sea. Through the murky depths, something splashed softly.

Like a drill, the giant pterodactyl emerged and shot up past the water, past the fluttering Wingulls, past the void of air until she whipped into the clouds, her wings literally billowing steam from the recent inferno.

"YOU _BITCH_!" Giovanni howled, shivering and soaking wet as he pointing a shaking finger at Ellen. "BITCH, SLUT, _BITCH_! FILTH! PIG-DOG! Trying to cremate me?" he snarled in a voice shaking with fury. "Kill me? Burn me like my other two Pokémon? Oh, but I've survived, as you can see. I am invincible."

Ellen cursed at him swiftly in return, giving him an obscene gesture. "You think you're so damn powerful…" Although she knew it true. Giovanni could be hurt physically, but Team Rocket supported him so much that he was indeed 'invincible'. "You think you're so dominant, but you have a huge army while we're only a group of…of…"

"Rebels?" Giovanni smirked, leering at her. His sneer trembled and morphed into a cruel grin. "Pigs? Scum? Bastards?"

Both Ellen and Charles lashed out at the Boss with claws and fists. The man flinched despite the safe distance between the two and shot out his hand to grasp the Anti-Trainer's wrist. He gave it a sharp twist, there was a snap, and with his great strength pulled her over the side of the Charizard. Feolan desperately jumped forward to grab her sneaker with his teeth, but to his comrades' and his horror toppled over and fell through the air, his mutilated lupine form twisting and screaming until he disappeared under the clouds.

"FEOLAN!" Charles roared. He turned to dive down and catch the Mightyena; Aerodactyl pulled back her muscular hind legs and with a spring-like motion kicked the dragon in the stomach, sending him reeling back. Aerodactyl then lunged at the Charizard, ignoring the screaming girl dangling over her side. The Fossil Pokémon relentlessly snapped and slashed at Charles, drawing thin lines of red down his stomach and arms.

For the first time, Aerodactyl actually expressed emotion and snickered as her fangs punctured the throat of Charles. "Well, aren't you a _delectable_ Charizard!" she cackled in a smooth voice spiked with both craving and malice as she drew her head back, licking her chops eagerly. "I could just _tear into you_, big boy…mmmMMM! Rip into your chest cavity…tear out your throat…hehehehe…," she giggled feverishly. "Lovely tail you've got there." A horrified Charles sheepishly drew his tail behind his back. "You wouldn't mind if I took a little nibble, would you?"

Her speed was unmatched, as she almost materialized behind Charles and nipped playfully at the flaming end of his tail. The Charizard yelped and lashed his tail at her furiously. Aerodactyl flinched when her snout, composed of her flinty, rock-type scales, glowed hot red and left a deep layer of crimson, sizzling flesh as a reminder of her imprudence. "Ohh, so _that's_ how you want to play! You son of a bitch…"

"I'll show _you_," Charles growled menacingly, brandishing his claws. He narrowed his piecing green eyes as Aerodactyl actually smirked at him, displaying her curved fangs.

"Please do," she purred, and attacked him.

The dragon splayed his wings up in order to protect the Pokémon on his back, but in a scene of horrific shock, the Fossil Pokémon simply punctured his right wing and tore through the thin, leathery film, ravishing and snapping the small bones, cackling with glee as she swallowed layers of skin. In an almost frozen time, Charles watched her mutilate him when suddenly reality set in, if there was any reality left in Kanto, and plunged through the sky, uttering not but a whine of failure.

Ellen watched as the last of her Pokémon advanced on the twisting sea below, Charles staring up at her with a look of complete sympathy — not for his noble self, but for the Anti-Trainer. Kyoshi appeared gracefully in the face of death, examining it with a hint of interest. Phil, of course, would have the most chance of living. Being a mudfish Pokémon, he could glide in the water with ease, but there was always the chance of ominous Pokémon lurking in the depths. These were Pokémon were a common knowledge of their fate, whether it was good or bad.

Giovanni leered into the Anti-Trainer's distraught eyes and shifted his weight on Aerodactyl so that he was able to pull her up to almost eye-level. "Well, well, well. All this fighting, all this fleeing has come down to Fiery Sapphire being suspended far above the Kanto Sea, awaiting her death. How does it feel to be so terrified? How does it feel that I have saved you from falling, when in fact I have the power to both let you drop into the sea _and_ kill you with my own hands?"

"_I HATE YOU_!" Ellen screamed at the Boss, thrashing wildly in his one-handed grasp. "_I HATE YOU, I HATE TROY, I HATE DONOVAN, I HATE MIROR B., I HATE VIOLA AND THE SCIENTISTS AND RALPH AND NATALIE AND THE GRUNTS AND THE EXECUTIVES AND…" _the girl paused to scream in frustration. "_I…I hate…my mom for keeping secrets…"_ something fierce was boiling in Ellen's caustic mind, and without warning she shrieked, "_I HATE MY DAD_!"

The Boss began to laugh with glee, a cruel, cold roar, but Ellen did not notice him either laughing or removing the necklace from her neck.

"_I HATE HIM FOR LEAVING! I HATE HIM FOR NEVER TELLING ME ANYTHING! I HATE HIM FOR BEING SO GODAMN LOVING WHEN HE JUST UP AND LEAVES!_" Her entirely train of thought collapsed with these last words, a mass of through crumbling under her very words of such power. Ellen's eyes welled with tears. She was a terrible daughter!

"Those are sufficient last words. Goodbye." Giovanni suppressed his chuckles finally and slowly, very slowly, let go of her wrist—

She fell.

OoO

Kyoshi could already imagine her notice of death as the Persian sank beneath the waves:

_To Michigan, Houston, and Elder Alden-_

_The ghost of Kyoshi regrets to inform you that she has drowned in the Kanto Sea because of a violent Gym battle. Among this battle, she learned how to heal various creatures, two being Ellen Adler and Charles. She understands that Ellen might not forgive her for this, although she's become a very changed person, but she hopes that Charles will certainly understand as to why his torso is being ripped apart as he thrashes wildly in the water, a cloud of blood surrounding him._

Indeed, Charles was writhing in the seawater, a giant, gory hole splitting open in his throat and torso.

_It has come to Kyoshi's attention that her healing powers were not what they seemed to be. Her hypothesis is that if the healed wounds purveyed under too much stress, they would rupture and resume their normal gory aspect. As she looks through the water, she can already see Charles – wonderful, compassionate, handsome Charles – being engulfed in a wave of close death. _

Kyoshi sighed mentally. '_Charles…just thinking his name makes me…happy…I guess…it's so cold. I hope Charles isn't it too much pain. Of course, the wounds on his stomach and throat opened up, so I'm just kidding myself. I just wish we had more time together…sigh…I really love him._'

The Persian meowed bitterly, water instantly pouring into her mouth and down her throat, and reached for Charles's claw, batting at it and then trying to grasp it tightly in her own paw. Unfortunately, she failed to do so and the dragon was swept away in the waves.

OoO

There was a moment in which Ellen lost track of all time, space, and the general void of things. Even as the man released his crushing hand from her wrist, in seemed the Anti-Trainer levitated in the air, and suddenly was plummeting through the clouds, through the mist and cold, cruel winds, through the crowds of Wingulls and air stinking of blood and Giovanni was screaming with laughter, and she too was screaming, her face contorted into a look of disparity as she smelled death below and-

Frigid water washed over her, both tearing and caressing, snarling and whispering. Instantly the salt water stung her eyes and the raw cold of November pierced her flesh. Even thing snapped into perspective, and without hesitation, Ellen broke the surface of the water and began gagging and hacking up water. The girl's hands roamed over the waves, groping for any of her Pokémon in sight; her stomach began to tighten with anxiety. For a reason unbeknownst to her, her fingers ached with a long, heavy pain. What was happening?

OoO

Phil was happy.

'_I'm swimming really well_,' he thought giddily, shivering with pride. '_Now I can help out the others! Ohh…they'll be surprised when they see ME_!' He gingerly touched a fin to the odd, tawny colored gills on the side of his arm. '_Weird_. _I hope they still like me…I look a different_…'

The Pokémon swam smoothly through the murky water, admiring how clearly he could see the small fish flitting around, the Corsola slumbering, floating through the ocean…and then his snout bumped into something quite odd.

'_Oh my…huh, this is weird…it's all tangly…eww_,' he wrinkled his snout up at it and inspected the thing more closely. '_I…ugh, gross! It's all slimy! 'Couse, I'm slimy, but…I-"_ he paused, his eyes widening. "_I…Ellen? ELLEN? Nuh- NO! Ohh, I'll help you out! Just wait! Hold on…ah! Charles?_" Phil turned around to see the dragon, a large trail of blood flowing behind him, floating towards the depths of the sea, and Phil quickly swam over, supporting the stiff, cold Charizard on his arm. '_Gee, you're heavy…I swear, it'll be okay…oh no…what about the rest? I…I don't know what to do!_"

The Swampert looked again at Ellen and Charles and sunk his head. He evolved, but he was still the little Mudkip he was long before.

OoO

The Anti-Trainer found herself mumbling incoherently, not noticing her insides literally churning. "No…I don' _wanna_…nononnooooo…Pfffffhhhil? Oww…owww…nonono…" she began sobbing as a wave enveloped her. "_Muh- mom_…_Feolan…Kyoshi…Charles…K'-kaden_…_ddddaaaaaadddddd_…

A small bursting noise issued from the water, and the Wingulls flying above her cocked their heads curiously at the muffled screams beneath the water. Something long, red, and slightly meaty submerged on the surface, and one of the small seagulls fluttered down and pecked at it.

The screams had subsided.

Another jolt of pain ripped through Ellen's body. Purple bruises suddenly spotted her arms and legs, and her nose wrenched into a strange position again, blood gushing forth. Pain snapped the Anti-Trainer's backbone, tore out her entrails, cracked her bones. Death became her friend. Ellen would have shrieked in fury if not for her slowly dying body. No more badges…no more destinations…no more life…the Rayquaza Document was only a ploy to stop the Anti-Trainers from rising again…and they were stupid enough to fall for it.

She fought bitterly within herself, two sides raging a violent war: life, and death.

Life was the small hope that somehow, somewhere, another young person would chance upon the Anti-Trainers and fulfill their duty to stop Team Rocket. Life was the Anti-Trainers remembering Ellen after her demise, remembering that she had lost her life in fighting for them. There was no hope for her; she had given up long ago when Giovanni spat cruel words at her, grinning at her pain. In retrospect, the Anti-Trainer could say she gave up in Silph Co. Just before she had punched the Boss's face, there was the sickening moment in which he had caught sight of her necklace. That was enough. His face twisted into confusion, then rage. Of course.

And death…death was…failure. All of her friends, family, and mentors. Dead. Would Giovanni hunt them out and aim a gun at their foreheads, laughing as he displayed Ellen's blood-splattered necklace in some grotesque trophy? Would he somehow find Fredia and…_succeed_? All the people she knew — would they die because of _her_? Would Kanto be ruled under Giovanni's iron fist, while the Kanto Police Force just sat back and watched?

No. No, that couldn't happen! Giovanni would die before her! It couldn't end like this. It couldn't. It coul-

Before she could finish thinking, Ellen froze up, her mind disjointed from her body.

_Dead_, she thought, and there was no more.

Giovanni had won.

OoO

…

Finally. The chapter is finished. This is the longest chapter I've ever written.

**If you have time and are kind enough to do so, please drop by a REVIEW, as I spent a while working on this chapter. I would really appreciate it, and it doesn't even have to be long. THANKS!**

**Notes:**

YOU THERE! Yes, you! That writer over there! The writer with Latias by his side and Mewgle sitting on his head! Ri2, you are officially the most intelligent person to question the Rayquaza scheme. That's why I didn't want to answer any more questions.

It wasn't that gory to me. I'm just paranoid.

Oh, and tune in next time for another chapter.


	38. The Triumph of Death

Well, the much awaited chapter. I'm sorry this took so long, life has been busy. All I have to say is…despite things looking lighter and brighter, darkness eventually devours all.

Isn't that pleasant?

Oh and another thing. You may have noticed that I changed this fiction's category from Action/Adventure/Humor to Action/Adventure/General. Now, I understand fully that Fiery Sapphire for the most part is humor. Of course, with the addition of the last chapter, I began to worry. You couldn't call a fiction humor if so much gore was going on! Horror was out of the question, as Fiery Sapphire did not include enough horror to qualify, so I settled on General.

**IF YOU AS THE READER ARE DISTURBED OR MADDENED BY CURSING, VIOLENCE, GORE, SUICIDE ATTEMPTS, AND SEXUAL REFERENCES, PLEASE GO GIVE YOUR MOMMY AND DADDY HUGS AND THEN WAIT A WHILE AND TRY TO COPE WITH REAL LIFE A YEAR FROM NOW.**

All my characters and fake names are copyrighted by Flameboo.

OoO

Fiery Sapphire

Chapter 38

The Triumph of Death

Apart from the crisp, fluttering breezes of the Kanto Sea and the soft lapping of waves against the Seafoam Island beach, Articuno felt absolutely nothing.

He was in his own world, apart from reality, apart from life. He was away from the Kanto that was slowly dissolving into nothing but a crime-infested sleaze bucket. He was away from his two bumbling siblings. And most importantly, he was away from the strange presence he had caught sight of in the Kanto Sea. Despite his curiosity for the shadowy blobs floating in the currents, he knew he should stay away from having anything to do with it. Stay _far, far_ away. Oh, of course he had seen the beforehand. Oh, there was no question of it. He had seen the Aerodactyl swooping through the air, cutting through the wind with its muscular gray wings. He had seen the man riding the prehistoric Pokémon. Giovanni – Boss of Team Rocket, the bereavement of Kanto. Immediately when he had seen the cruel tyrant, Articuno huddled down in his roost a bit further before quickly regaining his regal avian perch. Despite the other Legendaries warning of, 'steer clear of Team Rocket,' the handsome bird scoffed at the thought. They were legendaries, for Mew's sake! Just because Lugia had been ditzy enough to leave her chick wandering around did not mean that_ everyone_ had a mental capacity the size of a pinto bean.

And then came the Charizard. The great dragon, wings outspread and beating powerfully, carried with him a tiny caravan of travelers, it seemed, and a very motley caravan at that; an albino Mightyena, a Persian, a Marshtomp, and a very frightened and angry girl. What surprised him even more was that they appeared to be _chasing after_ Giovanni. How odd.

Articuno was thrown out of his meditate state when something sharp and hard tugged on his wing. He swiveled his hawk-like head around to face the disruption, a Swellow nestled beside him had been pecking him impatiently. The large gray and red bird jerked her head towards the Kanto Sea and asked, "What are you looking at?"

There was a moment of silence in which the wise Ice-type reflected on this question, both mentally and spiritually. He pondered life itself, even. Finally, the being came to a wise conclusion. "The…_water_," Articuno lied pitifully, knowing that despite his impeding, icy legendary form, he was warm-hearted inwardly.

"Duh," Swellow returned, allowing her wing to unfurl and pat the larger bird's own wing tenderly, crests spinning outwards. "I know you see something else out there. You definitely do; I've been with you too long. Can't fool your own mate. See, I've got these wonderful, deciphering powers. There called: _The Powers of Females._"

Articuno rolled his pupil-less eyes. He gestured his ice-encrusted, sky-blue wing to the crashing waves and looked on. "Sorry. I've been seeing these shadowy shapes in the water for the longest time, and after we saw Giovanni flying across…"

"…you're worried, right?" Swellow finished the legendary's sentence. She looked back at a nest. The nest was huge, at least ten times the normal avian nest and consisted entirely of packed sand dotted by small ice sickles. Three large, blue-speckled eggs rested in the middle. "Uh…I guess someone should be sitting on those, huh?" the mother asked.

Articuno shrugged and prepared to stand on his powerful talons and walk over, but Swellow extended her wing to stop him.

"Someone who _doesn't_ have a butt the temperature of _Antarctica_!"

"Listen, I can't do anything about my…chilly _butt_!" Articuno cried in vain, rolling his eyes once again. "And you haven't even _been_ out of the regions before. How do you know that Antarctica is even the slightest bit cold? Why, it could be like Cinnabar there!"

Defeated at her own strange game, Swellow grumbled for a bit before waddling off to sit on the eggs, closing her eyes. Articuno turned back to the sea and squinted his eyes, hoping to catch another glance of the figures. He focused a bit more, and…the bird suddenly gasped with horror as he could clearly see _bodies_ floating in the water. Articuno's first instinct was to erupt into flight and snatch up the poor creatures in hopes of saving them, but he quickly dispelled of the idea. Any association with non-legendary creatures greatly stained the reputation of _any_ Legendary, and because of Swellow, he was already disliked by most of the Legendaries. And from the looks of it, these bodies did not belong to Legendaries.

The bird's mind conflicted back and forth. Should he defy the instructions of the other Legendaries, or should he stay in his place?

A battle between life and death.

OoO

Giovanni finally grew tired of staring at the bodies floating in the water and suddenly realized that all the blood loss had made him incredibly weak, not to mention the feats of strangling, slapping, punching, kicking, being almost torn apart by an incredibly angry Charizard, and suspending a something-pound girl over the Kanto Sea, only to drop her moments later. Despite the aforementioned, he still felt a sense of incredible satisfaction and supremacy welling up inside him, something that he had not felt in years. It was as if a snake who had been hunting a small mouse for weeks had finally cornered it. No matter how long the mouse ran or how hard the mouse fought, the snake had eventually devoured the rodent and savored the taste of victory, perhaps mustering a vainglorious smile.

He himself felt like that snake.

Giovanni had killed Fiery Sapphire.

He had killed the bitch that had plagued him so. He had killed the one Anti-Trainer who seemed to have even the slightest chance of besting him, even when it came in the form of Pokémon. The Boss paused in his thought and shook his head slightly. No, that was the lie. Fiery Sapphire was not the only one who came close to destroying his empire.

Kaden only bested fiery Sapphire.

A rage had erupted in him when he realized Fiery Sapphire was the offspring of Kaden…and Fredia. Ah, Fredia, the delectable little Anti-Trainer who seemed to be out of place in their horrible beliefs. How she had intrigued Giovanni when the two groups were still small! And _he_ could have taken her then, he often had fantasies of having her. Fiery Sapphire would not have existed; no freak of nature would come from his loins. Yet, his infatuation for Fredia immediately dissipated when Kaden was found to be her husband, thanks to Fiery Sapphire's tortured prattling. Fredia had been stained by the Head Anti-Trainer's mere touch on her physical form; Fredia was now a foul slut, far too miserable for Giovanni to even consider her.

There had been times in which the Boss observed Kaden Adler as a simple barrier between the means of failure and victory for Team Rocket. There had been times (mostly in the very early beginnings,) where Kaden seemed a bystander, observing yet never becoming involved. The Anti-Trainer would stand, watching, watching Team Rocket grow from a gang of four to a small mob, watching them steal and rape and kill and gorge themselves on money.

It was only when Giovanni targeted a young woman whose name he could not remember, (although he did recall that her father owned all the pineapples in Celadon City,) that hostility truly began…

_Giovanni looked much younger twenty years ago, his hair was still its natural ebony color, the worry lines on his face were not as intact, and his swarthy, handsome features were much clearer. Saffron City was a much nicer city then, it was a fairly safe city as Kanto went, and the mayor, also the President of Silph Co, was trying his best to make it a crime-free area most of the time. It was a major commercial area at the time. Most high-end businesses had their headquarters there, and some of the most prestigious colleges and high schools rested in the area, one of the colleges being the ivy-league Advocatus Diaboli College, which Giovanni had attended and recently graduated._

_Despite the mayor's attempts to keep Saffron City a safe area, the soon-to-be-Boss was slowly twisting in into the city of his liking, a pleasure-city that every college graduate usually dreams of. He was smart enough for it, he insisted. He had graduated cum laude, his SAT scores were among the top in Kanto, and his almost eerily commanding and slightly obsessive work ethic motivated him further to become a powerful leader._

_Brown-haired, lighthearted Kaden, on the other hand, existed and graduated from his college solely on scholarship money. Although he was not the brightest student nor man, his superb knowledge of history did win him an opportunity to attend a Saffron City college. He had absolutely no clue what he wanted to do in life, and the only thing that he could conjure up was spending his time exploring the city. He arguably fell in love with the city (not to mention the cute Fredia person he knew,) but detested the way Giovanni was turning it into a hellhole. The mere thought or mention of the man infuriated him, and yet he did not feel the courage to become involved in the struggle against them. This criminal was destroying Kanto without a care and killed listlessly!_

_Such as what Kaden thought as he was out one evening, hands stuffed in his pockets, exhibiting his trademark slouch-walk. His eyes were fixed on the ratty sneakers he wore, which were at least 4 years old. Hot damn. He would have to buy new ones soon, and shoes were not cheap. The streetlights cast a dim splay of light onto the roads, and Kaden had his mind set on the coffee shop a little while away where Fredia worked._

_Apart from the occasional string of curses as the man tripped on a stray pipe, the city was quiet. Once or twice Kaden did hear a scuffling sound, but he ignored it and continued on his way. It was only when the noises increased in volume and sound that the man became suspicious, and as he reached a nearby alleyway did he become slightly nervous. Team Rocket was known for their nightly run-arounds. The air was muggy and stale, mixing with fumes to create a sickening odor, and Kaden could take it no longer. When he reached the alleyway, he braced himself and swiftly turned into it to see the commotion._

_The man blinked his brown eyes for a bit, adjusting to the sudden absence of light, and as the haze cleared away, he could clearly make out two figures, one of which made his nerves taut and his mind withdraw. Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket, and another black-haired woman pressed against the wall, the Boss's hand constricted around her throat. Kaden cursed himself mentally for getting involved. What was he supposed to do, knock Giovanni out, rescue the random woman, and risked being killed in the process? The police were the ones who were meant to deal with things like this!_

"_Uh…" Kaden began, speechless. Giovanni now turned to glare at him curiously, absorbing the full picture of the pale, thin, slouchy man before him. He heard himself saying, "What the hell are you doing?"_

_The Boss frowned. Who was this? He was interrupting his steal and rape. He did not have time for people such as the plebian man. "Well, what does it look like?" he spat viciously, releasing a bit of pressure from the woman's neck and causing her to gasp for breath. "Are you blind? Can't you see that you're interrupting?"_

_Kaden ignored the urge to become livid and stepped forward, still unable to overshadow Giovanni in height. The man was a gutsy fellow, but it seemed the Boss grew more intimidating every second. "Get away from her! I swear I'll call the police!"_

_The Boss did not seem affected by his threat, only chuckled and shook his head, his attention flickering back to the woman plastered against the brick wall. As if in pain, a great sense of guilt and anger rose up in Kaden as Giovanni began to kiss and graze the woman's neck, the Boss moaning with pleasure. There was absolutely no way that Kaden could leave this matter unattended. Without second thought his hand closed around the back of Giovanni's head like a claw and pausing a moment to let the woman flee the scene, rammed the Boss's head into the brick wall. Giovanni released a scream of pain and fury. The uncoordinated, younger man was immediately grabbed by the arm and carelessly tossed onto the cold, filthy ground. Kaden's head collided with the ground and sent a wave of pain spiraling through his skull. He sat up wearily and brought a hand to the side of his head, wincing. Wet with blood. His mind suddenly connected. GET OUT OF HERE, IDIOT!_

_He sprang up…only to see Giovanni standing in front of him, his forehead a mush of blood. The skin had been torn, revealing the white of a skull. The Boss quickly produced something from his pocket and flipped it open. A pocketknife._

_Giovanni hissed through clenched teeth, "I do not know the hell you are, and I don't know why the hell you had to ruin this. BUT IT WILL BE YOUR LAST, BASTARD!" The Boss held the knife up to plunge in into Kaden's throat, but the soon-to-be-Anti-Trainer turned around and stumbled backwards out of the alleyway, shoes slipping against the gravel._

_Although the knife missed his throat, the blade sunk into shoulder, creating a fresh spur of blood to pool. The shock caused Kaden to pause in his fleeing and scream loudly, hitting the ground once again._

"_You BASTARD!" cried Kaden, "YOU GODDAMN BASTARD!"_

"_Screaming will get you no where," Giovanni hissed. "You're dead, pig. Slaughtered." With every word, he drove the blade deeper. With every word, Kaden experienced more and more pain. The blood cascaded heavily, and the Boss sliced through the shoulder and down to the arm, laughing as the man finally could take it no longer and scrabbled to a stand. The blade jerked from his arm and Kaden took to the street, heart pounding, arm a picture of death. He could hear Giovanni yelling after him, laughing. LAUGHING. The Boss was laughing after he had just tried to rape a woman and kill a man._

"_RUN, DOG!" Giovanni howled, cackling. "RUN!"_

_The streetlights illuminated a path for Kaden as he sprinted to the hospital, wincing with pain. He remembered Giovanni's cruel form of delight when he plunged the knife in the younger man's arm and shivered slightly._

_Kaden took heed of the Boss's advice and ran to the hospital, he ran to the coffee shop to meet with Fredia, and very soon Kaden would run into Giovanni's victim again, learning her name was Marylyn. And quickly, both Kaden and Marylyn devised a certain group of people to impede Team Rocket's grip on Kanto. Eventually, more people began to flock towards them, including Fredia, and a Grunt fed up with Team Rocket's ways. The Grunt never disclosed his real name, although the group deemed his 'Russell'._

_Through the years, the group became more and more popular, although some of the group members had a nasty habit of being killed off when attending missions. They adapted the name 'Anti-Trainers' through a process that went something like this:_

"_Anti-Rockets?" suggested Kaden._

"_Too obvious," a young Russell responded gruffly. "We'd practically be targets."_

_The Head Anti-Trainer sighed heavily. "Damn. All right. Anyone got anything else?"_

"_Anti…TEAM Rocket?" A dark skinned young woman cocked her head diligently, and then shook it. "No, never mind."_

_Fredia piped up. "We COULD use reverse psychology."_

_Kaden gawked. "Huh? How would we do that?"_

"_Well," the girlfriend began carefully, "to confuse Team Rocket, we could name ourselves something that they themselves dislike."_

"_Anti-Morals," Kaden muttered under his breath._

_Marylyn suddenly shot up from a couch. "How about Anti-Trainers?"_

"_That's the stupidest name I've ever heard!" the lead Anti-Trainer exploded._

_Fredia hit Kaden good-naturedly on the knee and the man grinned. Kaden smiled. She was very pretty. "Oh, stop it. I think Anti-Trainers is a great name. From now on, we'll be the Anti-Trainers."_

"_Hurray!" the dark skinned woman cheered._

_Kaden Adler frowned sulkily and slouched over in his seat, tracing the scar that ran down his arm. He snorted with sarcastic laughter. "Anti-Trainers…wow…huh."_

_Little did the man know that a few years later a smaller person, namely his tiny, 3-year-old daughter dubbed Ellen, would softly trace that same scar, her round toddler face full of questions. "Whuh is dat, daddy?" she would question with such intensity that Kaden would laugh. "Whuh is dat? Whuh is dat? Damn. Damn! Damndamndam-"_

"_Okay, I'll tell you," the father interrupted quickly, hoisting her up to sit on his jean-clad lap. He forever regretted cursing in the presence of young Ellen, because much to Fredia's dismay the daughter's first word had become, 'damn.' "Um…I was in a…car accident." The child would never need to know the violence that pursued Kaden, nor would she ever need to know of the everlasting battle between Team Rocket and the Anti-Trainers. It was better to be ignorant and safe rather than knowledgeable and precarious. After all, when the baby was born Kaden had resigned from his place in leading the Anti-Trainers, leaving Russell to govern. Although he knew it was best, the man could not get used to normal family life. He felt as if an entire war was being fought in front of him, and yet he did nothing. But he could not go back, could he?_

_Ellen cocked her head at him, blinked her grey eyes, and said mournfully, "Oooohhhh…I'm sawry. Here. Hug." The toddler hugged his arm tightly, bounced off his lap, and wobbled away into the kitchen._

_Kaden became sullen as he saw his daughter totter away. He knew that someday she would grow up and finally explore the world, perhaps go to a nice school and then off to college. He dearly wished that she would not find the same fate or profession as he, just sticking to a simple, quiet life as opposed to an Anti-Trainer career fraught with death and pain._

'_You're overreacting,' he told himself, examining the scar down his arm once again._

_Kaden also did not know that approximately twelve years later, a teenager was lying on the Seafoam Island beach, half-dead. Her name was Ellen Adler, and she was an Anti-Trainer._

OoO

Ellen Adler woke up.

She did not immediately sit up, nor did she open her eyes. It was as if a small switch had flicked in her brain, sending a jolt of awareness into her nerve system. Through she had no idea where she was, or what had happened to her, there was a grainy, almost soft feeling material under her palms, which she quickly identified as sand. The presence of sand confused her to no extent. It was so cold; the sea currents were blowing sharp gales of icy wind. Would a beach be cold? She shivered as a small wave soaked her right arm, her bones and muscles contracting with effort, her huddled mass aching. Ellen felt oddly lightheaded while at the same time her lower torso felt strangely taut and pressured. She could not be dead, could she? There was no need for the strange, painful feelings she was experiencing. Death was supposed to be and end to all terrible things. Her mind froze. Was she even dead; was she somehow still alive despite the mortal wounds she had experienced?

Suddenly, the Anti-Trainer heard someone yell sternly, "For goodness sake, put the girl _SOMEWHERE ELSE_! Can't you see she's FREEZING? And you're probably scaring her to bits!"

"She doesn't even have her eyes open, for Mew's sake! And I bet she can't hear us either!" a male voice responded pleadingly.

The female voice scoffed, and Ellen could clearly hear the ruffle of feathers and a squawk. "What a load of bologna. Now, get back on track and take the girl to the nest. At least she won't be so cold. We can't have her die of hypothermia after that nice Persian— Kyoshi, sorry, right, won't forget it again." There was a pause. "We can't have her die of cold after she was healed. Now, why don't you see if we can do anything else to help, and I'll go check on the Charizard and Mightyena. They don't seem to be too responsive…"

All while the female voice was chattering away, Ellen felt something hard and rounded clamp down on her arm and proceed to drag her across the beach, all while a muffled, incredibly close voice mumbled complaints directed at the other voice. As she was moving, something jolted her awake. The name, 'Kyoshi' opened a great surprise in her mind, and her eyes suddenly shot open. An intense burst of light blinded her for a moment, but her vision began to clear, only small dots swaying in front of her eyes. Something large and blue wavered in front of her as the round, hard gripping-object was released from her arm. Surprisingly, the thing in front of her said something in a concerned voice. Ellen frowned, but suddenly broke into a smile. How odd! A blue blob was speaking to her. How funny! How ridiculously hilarious! The Anti-Trainer giggled for a bit, and the blob repeated what it had just said. Something about, 'hurt.' Why, of course she was hurt! There was a giant, bloody hole in her stomach! Wasn't that funny? Wasn't it funny that Giovanni had tortured her? Everything she looked on was comical to the Anti-Trainer. Violence? She giggled. Rape? She giggled. Death? Guffaw.

Ellen's stomach suddenly clenched up and her face drained of color. She jerked to the side and retched violently. There was a pause, and there came a spastic fit of retching before Ellen lay still on the sand, her body exhausted from the attempts to vomit. She was no longer laughing.

The teenager rolled onto her back to see, balanced on huge white talons, was a magnificent, quetzal-like bird. The avian was a sky-blue, soft white feathers coating his chest and stomach. He had massive wings, each feather encrusted with a thin layer of ice, making the feathers seem almost scaly. Three long, blue crests formed on his forehead and wavered in the air, mimicking the flowing tail-feathers. His eyes were large and red, slightly slanted, and the long, curved beak was a shocking white.

Articuno cocked his head at her quizzically and pondered over the Anti-Trainer's state for a moment. He had rarely spoken with humans before, and the last time he even tried speaking human ended in disaster.

"_Wa-what are YOU?" a shivering, terrified man cried to the legendary, unaware that the bird was trying to save him from an icy death in the mountains._

_Articuno slowly, disjointedly replied, "Your…mother…is…half…tree…and…half…umbrella…"_

That did not go over too well.

Before the quetzal even had a chance to practice some human-speech, Ellen gasped and crawled backwards, terrified at a gigantic bird staring at her intently, not to mention her general confused mind. She did not get more than a foot before collapsing back down again, fatigued. "Geteray fro'me…" she mumbled drunkenly.

Articuno's nonexistent eyebrows shot up. He could understand her perfectly, save for her garbled speech. He had never heard of a Pokémon-speaking human. "Listen, I know you're a little confused and maybe a little scared, but I'm here to help. Really. You're not dead. You're all healed up, in fact."

Ellen looked genuinely surprised. "Na'dead?" She shifted her weight this way and that, finally sitting up. She examined various limbs. "Bu'…I…whoeou?"

"Articuno. Ex-legendary, soon-to-be-dad. I don't have much to do, so I spend my time looking at the sea. It's a good thing, too. That's how I saw you and your Pokémon. " His voice darkened considerably. "I saw Giovanni flying before you…I assume that how you got those injuries?"

The Anti-Trainer nodded slightly and looked about her. It seems she was on a barren, sandy island, the beach lined with large, snow-capped rocks and a Seel or two basking in the cold son. It was a large island, perhaps a mile or two in diameter, and towards the other end of the island she could see a large cave and a strange, rounded, nest-like sand formation. "Yeah…wait, where am I? And what about my Pokémon? Are they okay? And what happened to Giovanni? And where's my necklace?"

Articuno spread his icy wings apart in diffidence, blocking out the weak sun and hushing Ellen almost immediately. "One question at a time, one question at a time. Now…where should I start? Well, you are currently lying on Seafoam Island, the Pokémon who I assume are yours are farther away and being taken care of by my mate. Honestly, I don't know the condition of the Charizard. Kyoshi is up; she's the one who healed you. I tried to help a little, but most of my legendary powers are gone…but that's another story. I have no idea where Giovanni is, and I have no clue what necklace you're talking about. Are you satisfied?"

"But-"

He stopped her. "Wait a minute. I don't know who _you_ are. I'm entitled to some questions, too, if you're well enough."

Indeed Ellen's voice was a bit weak, but she had gained some control over it and was able to muster a nod. "I am." She swallowed and sighed, pulling together a brief description. She had been so many things over the past months. "I- my name's Ellen Adler, I'm from Fuchsia City, and I'm an Anti-Trainer. I've been fighting against Team Rocket for some months now, and I've done pretty well. I just went to the Earth Gym to get the last badge, but it turns out Giovanni was the leader…and we had this huge fight, but…I…I guess he won this time." The beach was silent, except for the chiming rustle of Articuno's wings. The more Ellen thought about it, the more she doubted that Giovanni had actually won. She was alive, wasn't she? "But if I'm still alive, then I guess I still have a little bit of a chance, right? I can go back and see Russ and the gang and then we could all band together and go to the HQ, right?"

"You lost me a while ago," the quetzal admitted bluntly.

The girl sunk her head, the tangled, blood-clotted mass of brown hair falling over her face. "Damn…sorry. I guess I'm so involved in this that it's sort of tattooed in my brain…I mean, when I went to the Celadon Game Corner and Silph Co, I wasn't that scared. I even _wanted_ to go…but now it's freaking scary whenever I think of going to the HQ at all. I almost died here, and I don't wanna think what those bastards would do at the HQ."

Shrugging, Articuno sat deep in thought for a moment, forehead furrowed in extreme concentration. Before patting Ellen on the back with his large wing and ushering her to see her Pokémon, he mumbled, "You're really lucky you survived Giovanni. After all, you do seem like a really…_intrepid_ girl." Articuno politely forgot to mention that anyone who chased Giovanni through the sky were completely and utterly reckless, not to mention a little on the dim-witted side. The two continued walking, Articuno taking long, bobbing steps while Ellen shuffled along, her destroyed shoes barely lifting from the sand. She shivered, her abdominal muscles clenching up painfully.

The Anti-Trainer suddenly realized she had not expressed gratitude to Articuno, and she said softly, "Th-thanks f-f-fer saving me and my Pokémon."

Articuno waved his wing dismissively, although there was a hint of guilt in his eyes. "Oh, it was nothing. Seriously, you don't have to thank me…you might as well thank your friend Kyoshi…she was the first one to wake up, _and_ she helped heal you."

"But…I don't get why when I fell in the water they were…_un-healed_."

"She explained it all to me. Since she's a beginning Physic, her healing powers were a bit weak and can't last through to much stress. Obviously you went through much stress at that time, and with the combination of the cold water, I'd say that was enough to almost kill you." His beak opened it what could be perceived as a smile. "No need to worry, though. With my help, your wounds are all sealed up. All that's left is just a scar. Just…try not to stress for a bit, eh? Ah. Here're your Pokémon right here."

Ellen's mind was still resting on the simple fact of trying not to be stressed, although it was not working. The sight of her Pokémon before her compelled the Anti-Trainer to worry even further, and telling herself not to worry just made it worse. The first thing she recognized was Kyoshi, who looked a bit shaken and ragged, her ribs protruding through her creamy fur.

If there was anything, the Persian's ears pricked up with interest. "Oh. Hello," she intoned carelessly.

"Thanks for-"

"ELLEN!" screamed a crazed voice, and something large, blue, and moist tackled the Anti-Trainer to the ground in a hug, pounding her face into the sand without a care. Articuno and Kyoshi shook their heads at the muffled cries of Ellen as Phil the Swampert glomped her unmercifully.

"Does he usually do this?" Articuno asked.

"Only when he evolves," Kyoshi answered.

Phil finally jumped to his four fins and smiled proudly, displaying two, protruding, orange gills on his face, two large fins on either side of his head, one mangled and torn, and a giant, axe-like tail fin. "I _evolved_!" the mudfish proclaimed obviously, allowing Ellen to scramble to her feet, wobble a bit, and regain her balance. "Isn't that _great_? Look, look! I can swim better and toss big globs of mud at things-"

A nearby, muck-covered lump groaned crankily, and a paw encased in mud wiped some mud from its eyes, revealing narrowed red slits. Feolan growled and with some effort stood up and harrumphed to sea, where he promptly fell into the waves for a good washing. Feolan stepped onto the sand and shook his remaining whitish-brown fur, sending small drops of mud onto Ellen. As he saw this, his mad shaking slowly came to a stop and his muzzle upturned into a grin. "Ellen! You're okay! Damn, did you scare me!"

Ellen managed to smile, and she was indeed overjoyed to see her Pokémon. Feolan came running towards her, and her smile disappeared. He was limping slightly; his left hind leg was turned outwards at a strange angle, and ran with a certain stumble. When the wolf noticed her gaping, he shrugged as the Anti-Trainer sat down next to him. "Awww, no worries, Ellen. Kyoshi couldn't heal me much 'cuz I'm a Dark type, but Articuno helped me out. At least I'm not like Charles," he added, lowering his head secretively and peering at the girl. He whispered, "Yeah, Kyoshi and Articuno healed Charles, but hypo-somethin' already got him bad. He's out cold."

"Is Charles okay?" Ellen asked fearfully, standing up. Her complete being almost radiated with worry, and she became aware that her hands and arms were shaking with fright. She looked around, expecting to see a great dragon lying by her side. "Where is he?"

Kyoshi nodded her head smoothly at a mound of sand, and nimbly jumped over a sand dune, pouncing behind a thick patch of dry, green plant. The rest followed. Behind the clump of beach grass, Charles lay curled up in a tight ball, the flame on the end of his tail barely above a wisp of flame. The Charizard's wounds were cleanly healed and held not but a small trace, but his scales were terribly cold to the touch, so cold that the Persian retracted her paw when she brushed it against the dragon's arm. He was like a corpse, stiff and lifeless, save for the small flame resting on his tail. She sunk her head silently, bowed in emotion.

Ellen felt hot tears stinging the cuts on her cheeks and she blinked rapidly, reaching up her wrist to wipe the tears away. "He's not dead. He's not dead. He can't be dead. Kyoshi, can't you heal him or something!?"

"I don't know," she responded almost curtly, turning to the girl. "It's not internal wounds, it the sheer cold of the Kanto Sea. I just _really don't know_. I already tried…I tried three times…"

Another bird hopped up to them, this one a bit smaller than Articuno with red and navy plumage, a feathery, soft crest flowing from her head. Two sharp tail feathers protruded from her back, tipped with a bright red. "There, there," Swellow said soothingly. "I'm sure he lived a long, nice life."

"That's no way to console anyone!" Articuno snapped angrily, sending a few icy feathers into the air. "And _you_ yell at _me_ for saying contrary things!" The quetzal shook his head, unaware of Swellow rolling her eyes.

The large swallow turned up her beak. "Well, EXCUSE me, Mr. Cold Butt!"

Articuno made several noises or aggravation and resisted the urge to have a minor fit.

"Is there_ any_ other way we can heal Charles?" Phil asked, unaware of the small war that was talking place between the mates.

The Legendary pondered for what seemed like hours when his expression changed to pure brilliance, but quickly reverted to bewilderment again. He clacked his beak nervously, eyeing the group with mixed emotions. Was he really going to let the Charizard die because of his own cowardice? His conscience would never let him live in peace knowing he caused the death of what looked like a hero and loving friend, and even when Articuno found Ellen's explanation of herself confusing, somehow he knew that something good would come out of saving Charles.

Articuno swallowed noisily and suggested, "Well, we could give Mew a visit and see if he'll help out."

"Lordie, have you gone _mad_?" Swellow screeched suddenly, flapping her navy wings and sending a flurry of feathers in the air. Her expression took on a look of misery, and she peered at the quetzal with concern in her black eyes. "Articuno, you can't go back there. Mew is a…a tyrant!"

Ellen rubbed her eyes and sat up. "Mew is a greedy asshole, but he _could_ help."

"You've _met_ Mew?" Articuno asked, shocked. The Anti-Trainer gave him a brief summery of the Berry Forest episode. The quetzal nodded sagely, light playing in his eyes. "Well, I'm sure that'll make it a bit easier for us…if you and your Pokémon are willing to go with me."

Kyoshi mewed desperately and flattened her ears back against her head. "I'm staying right here with Charles."

"Me too," Phil announced, moving next to the Persian.

Ellen and Feolan looked at each other. "I'll come," the Mightyena offered, cracking into a silly grin. "I'd love to give Mew an ass-kickin'!"

Swellow frowned at him and gave him a good whack upside the head with her wing, on which he grumbled. "You shouldn't be messing with Mew. He's way to powerful."

"But lazy," Articuno added helpfully. "And gluttonous."

The Persian appeared skeptical. "Right. But that still doesn't mean he can't zap you to charred skeletons."

Ellen shook her head and stood up. "That would be a lame way to die after we just survived Giovanni. All right. Feolan? Articuno? You guys ready?"

There was a pause before Articuno nodded and swiftly unfurled his cerulean wings, lowering himself into the soft land, allowing Ellen and Feolan to climb on his back. His feathers were soft and downy, an almost comforting feeling, and the quetzal instructed them to hold on to one of the many long crests flowing from his head. These too were quite beautiful, although they were encrusted in some kind of permanent ice, which became painful for Ellen to hold after a long while. The Anti-Trainer looked at her bare, spindly hands. This was the first time she had traveled without her faithful batting gloves. That was the last pair she had, and they were lost in the Gym battle. She shrugged. Perhaps she no longer needed them.

Ellen was almost thrown off Articuno when there was a sharp jerking motion, and with a few strong beats of his wings, the Legendary was off the ground and whipping up a large cloud of sand. The Wingull parted in awe as Articuno gained altitude rapidly, and soon the island was nothing more than a small, marbled painting of tawny sand, patches of green, and an icy white cave. The weather had not changed much; the sky was a ghastly, empty gray, a terrible emptiness that spread all throughout Kanto. The air was thin and raw, and the sea below looked as if it wanted nothing more than to choke and freeze the Anti-Trainer in its depths. Or beat her. Or mangle her. Or simply destroy her, like some horrific reincarnation of Giovanni.

Feolan's voice quickly brought her back into reality. "Ellen. Yo, Ellen. You're shaking."

The Anti-Trainer felt nauseated as her eyes snapped away from the sea and onto her trembling hands and arms. She was vaguely aware of the cold sweat across her forehead. "R-really? Oh, crap. Why the hell is it so cold?"

The Mightyena shrugged nonchalantly, itching a furless spot on his leg, but Articuno craned his neck around to give her a knowing, doubtful glance. For a split second, Ellen wondered if he could read minds, but quickly dispelled of the idea when she remembered telling him about her journey. The Anti-Trainer bit her lip. Although it sounded strange, it would have been much easier if Articuno _could_ read minds. There would be no reason to try to explain her complicated situation to him, he would already know and console her.

"It's because it's _winter_," Articuno answered after a while. "And because I'm an ice-type."

Ellen nodded. "Right."

Soon after this conversation, there was a small change in Articuno. As they seemed to be going north, the avian's flight pattern seemed to shift, although he did not flap his wings or turn swiftly. He simply glided along with the wind, blue feathers plastered against his back, eyes closed to slits. This was a much different feeling than flying on Charles, who had not yet mastered the air— it was almost exciting, the wind tearing at them, the grey sky rushing by them, the sea below…a mass of destruction, of fear, and yet the Legendary would not let them be intimidated.

The Anti-Trainer felt the very slight movement, and when she looked up, she found that they were no longer gliding over a vast sea, but small island that dotted the water below. Ellen looked down curiously, peering at the misshapen, doughnut-like islands, a tawny beach outlining them with a dark green center. "Articuno," she began slowly, "Where are we going? Is this the way to Mew? This sort of looks like the Sevii Islands…"

The quetzal did not answer for a bit, and with some prompting from Feolan, finally admitted rather weakly, "Well…we're taking a sort of pit stop…"

"Where? To get some gas?" Feolan asked cynically. "You're on empty?"

"No…" Articuno said, refusing to face them. "…Just…wait until we get there…"

Feolan and Ellen looked at each other quizzically, but asked no more questions. As they continued to fly, the islands grew larger in size until they were quite large, perhaps the size of Vermillion City, when quite abruptly the larger islands just _stopped_, reverting back to the smaller islands. The Anti-Trainer sighed and looked upwards, seeing the clouds pass by like a fantastic wonderland. The clouds were much more beautiful when Giovanni was not hunting you; the air was much less vicious when your life was not on the line. Life was much sweeter.

They continued flying in a straight line, Articuno beating his wings powerfully, when a heavily forested island appeared below, quite largest than the rest of the islands they had passed before. The Legendary's head jerked down, his ruby eyes quickly targeting the dense forest, and with out warning he suddenly twisted in the air until they were flying completely downwards. He folded his wings back, tucking them over Ellen and Feolan like a shield, and fell silently.

They were falling…falling…memories flashed back to the Anti-Trainer, thoughts of falling from a great height…thoughts of being battered unmercifully…thoughts of evil…and violence…and death…and—

THEY STOPPED.

Feolan was still screaming as if on a roller coaster, and Articuno lightly spread his wings again and balanced out on one of the air currents, drifty gently. When the two felt the wind die down and the calm sense return, Ellen tentatively opened her eyes, looked around, focused on something, and gasped.

Shielded by miles of tall trees, there was a huge, impeding, box-like, building completely made of a slick, metallic steel, painted black to blend in with the overall dark area, surrounded by barbed wire. From the main, box-like building was various hallways that snaked about the area, leading to tall, thin watchtowers. The watchtowers were thick and heavily armed, small guns poking out of various gaps in the towers. The steel box building was completely windowless, as if it was an institution, and on top of the box building was a smaller box, although this one had small, dirty windows. Ellen leaned closer and squinted her eyes, seeing something quite interesting. Somehow imbedded in the steel were small, white stones of some sort, of all different oblong sizes. As the Anti-Trainer looked closer, fear gripped her. Bones. Bones were imbedded in the walls. It continued on, the boxes stacked up like some macabre children's toy, becoming smaller and smaller until it abruptly stopped.

Although that was not the end of the building— after the last, small, steel box abruptly ended, a larger building was built on the smallest box, held up by black steel beams. The larger building looked oddly like a normal, if not ornate, Victorian-style house. There were windows, rooms, a door that served absolutely no purpose, other than walking out into thin air and falling to one's death, and even a chimney that gave way to an even larger tower, larger than the watchtowers that surrounded the strange, morbid building. The tower was craggy and almost crooked, something out of the Brothers Grim, and completely made of black stone.

Articuno opened his curved beak and emitted a cry of agitation when he felt a tugging on the long crests from his forehead. "Wha- ouch! What's that? Ow! Stop it!"

"I-I-I w-wanna go back. Get me the h-hell away f-from this p-place." Ellen continued tugging on the long, beautiful crests, occasionally pulling a few feathers from it. Her face was a mask of terror, and although no one had identified this place, she knew it perfectly. "Why did you take us h-here!?"

The Legendary threw his head wildly until the girl let go of the crests. "Do you even know where we are?"

"Team Rocket HQ!" Feolan and Ellen answered desperately.

"Why are we here?" The Anti-Trainer asked again, thinking of all the horrible things that went on behind those walls. She imagined both Pokémon and humans horribly slaughtered by the Rockets. Ripping flesh from bones, tearing nerve endings out, draining blood from veins, disemboweling them until there was nothing more than a gruesome, bloody pile of flesh and bones.

"I…I just wanted to show you what you were up against if you ever decided to come here…" The Legendary circled the area for a bit, looking down on the building. If he stretched his wings out far enough, he could have brushed against the craggily tower. "I really wish I could help you, but…"

"_Why_ the hellcan't you?" Feolan pressed. "Is there some law? Is there something stopping you? We don't have a chance in there, _Arty_," he spat. "If we go in there, us Pokémon are gonna get killed, and," he pointed a paw at the extremely nervous Anti-Trainer. "I don't even wanna _think_ about what's gonna happen to Ellen."

"Personally, Feolan, I would fly right down here and destroy it for you. Right now…if I could." He sighed and shook his head. "I can do anything. I'm just powerless. I can even fire an Ice Beam, let alone destroy an entire mafia."

Ellen sufficed a slight gag. There was a sickening odor rising from the building, a hot, heavy scent of industry, sweat, and blood, so humid and sob-inducing that the ice on Articuno's wings was beginning to melt, dampening the feathers considerably. "But _I_ can't do it, either. And…wait, how are you powerless?"

With a slightly more harsh turn, Articuno whipped away from the area, jerking his two passengers violently. Humans could be so _stupid_. What did it take them to understand that sometimes, very rarely, _they_ had to take care of things _themselves_? "It doesn't matter. What matters is that you don't seem too interested in saving Kanto."

"You don't know how goddamn scared I was back in the Gym," Ellen snapped as she caught one last glimpse of the Headquarters. "But I didn't show it. Ya know? I actually try and do shit. But the Headquarters is way too much. It's…its just filled with Rockets…people who hate me. People who I hate."

"And you don't think I was scared when Mew came along and decided to ruin my whole image as a Legendary? Do you think you're the only one with problems in Kanto? Do you think the world exists solely for your troubles? ARGH." The Legendary opened his hooked beak and emitted a cry of frustration, which he seemed to do regularly. The bird exhaled slowly. "I'm really sorry. That was uncalled for. I- I…sometimes, I get tired of being so nice. If you're a Legendary, you're not supposed to _be_ nice. You're supposed to be powerful, arrogant. But, you know, I'm not like that." He shook his head. "I'm sorry."

"No. Wait." Ellen had been thinking through his entire speech, thinking about his words. He was right. Nothing was going to be done with her just sitting back and watching Kanto crumble under Giovanni's fist. She _would_ have to fight back, no matter how she felt about it. She had been torn into this chain of events, and she would tear herself out. "I'm the one who should be sorry."

Feolan stared at her, his crimson eyes wide with shock. "Ellen. Jeezus, that's the first time I've, like, ever heard you apologize. For a _good_ reason. Your not goin' soft on us, are yeh?"

The Anti-Trainer quietly gave him an obscene finger gesture.

The Mightyena nodded, satisfied. "Just checking."

Much to the passengers delight, Articuno was now flying in the opposite direction, far away from the sickening headquarters. The wind now flew with them, greatly increasing their speed and nimble flight. It was as if the wind wanted them to avoid the Headquarters. Articuno seemed much happier now, as he was clearly in one of his own elements. "Mew lives very faraway," he explained cheerfully, "It's no joke that his island is named _The World's Edge_. But, never fear, we'll get back with time to spare, and Charles will recover. I have to warn you, though…be careful around Mew. He's a bit…uh…dangerous, if you catch me drift."

"_How_?" asked Ellen, stupefied. "Sure, _he_ has some weird powers, but he never thinks about using them. Mew makes all the Legendaries look _stupid_."

Articuno sighed.

"Every legendary Pokémon born into the regions have a unifying set of extra powers in them. It doesn't even matter what type you are, Mew and Groudon had the same extra powers before Mew devoured Groudon when he got too hungry." The bird shivered faintly. "Even though we don't know the extent of the powers, we've discovered some such as healing and the ability to exist under extreme conditions that we might be weak too. I used to have those exact powers, too, but…" he sighed, "I'm officially an ex-legendary. We have this…_rulebook_, almost. It's very strict, and one of the conditions is that we can't mate out of our species…and I _sort_ of broke that rule, because technically Swellow is still a bird just like me, only I'm much rarer…anyway, when Mew found out he was angry. So he took the powers out of me, just like _that_."

"Whoa! That asshole! No wonder Kanto is such a shitbag!" Feolan cried. "How'd_ he_ get to be God?"

"_How_?" repeated the bird dramatically, rolling his eyes. "How should I know? Mew is strange; one minutes he blinks over to the island, picks his nose for a little, tells me I broke a sacred rule, jams his paw into my head, rips out half my brain and then leaves…I still have a scar on my forehead."

For once, the Anti-Trainer and the Mightyena were speechless.

Articuno shook his head. "Well, no time to rant…Charles's life dependant on us, and we can't waste time…"

If one could imagine how far away _The World's Edge _was, one would be reciting pi for however long it continued. There was no way to describe how far the island was from Kanto, or Hoenn, for that matter, but Articuno, Ellen, and Feolan continued rapidly through the air until far away from the islands, in a place dominated by extreme darkness, the only light coming from a small island below, until the bird lifted his wings and dove downwards through the pitch black. The warm light became larger and larger, until the group was consumed by its overall brightness. There was a flash of luminosity, and nothing.

Nothing, except Mew, of course.

_The World's Edge_ was, technically, not an island but a mere personification of some sort of light that radiated from the ground and sky with an ethereal, warm glow. As the travelers entered the area, there Mew floated, resting calmly in the middle of the area of light. When the kitten sensed their presence, he opened his blue eyes slowly, stared for a moment, and smiled.

"Hey _assholes_," Mew scoffed lowly and crudely, unleashed a disgusting belch only to cough up a large chunk of raw meat moments later. "_God_. What brings you to my bachelor pad?"

The three exchanged glances.

"Um…Mew," Ellen began. "I guess you remember me-"

"Who're you?" the Legendary snapped, flicking his dirt-encrusted tail nastily. "I don't have time for shits like you. I swear, if you don't- wait, hold up. _God_. I remember you. What was your name? Betty? Sara? Katie? Whatever. Get out of here before I eat you."

Feolan stepped up. "Hey, Mew, we need your help. Listen, Charles…that Charizard that all helped us survive in the forest…he's sick…he's gonna die if you don't help us."

Suddenly, the kitten swooped up to them. Articuno gasped and staggered back while Mew stared at Feolan straight in the eyes, and then slowly turned to Ellen, his face in an odd, comical state. "What makes you think _I'm_ gonna help you?"

Ellen stared straight back at him. "Because I helped you once."

"Like that matters," Mew said, rolling his eyes. "I get help from _bazillions_ of people, and I never pay 'em back. _God_. I'm not gonna get anything outa it."

"But…Charles is like family…" the Anti-Trainer began, and suddenly realized how important her Pokémon were. "But…if we don't save Charles, Team Rocket will kill me and every other person against them, and they've capture you and you won't be the God of Kanto anymore."

Mew's eyes grew three sizes larger when he heard this. He stared at Ellen for a bit, shook his head as if to clear his thoughts, and hacked up a huge hairball on Ellen's head, much to her dismay. Quite suddenly, he roared his insane fury. "NO! I AM THE GOD OF KANTO, AND IT SHALL STAY THAT WAY. Giovanni can't rule over _me_, even though I do think he's a pretty good role model…Articuno!" he pointed at him wildly. "My not-so-loyal slave! The half of your brain may have been incredibly tasty, and I may have let you survive that attack, BUT I STILL HATE YOU, AND THEREFORE, I WILL NOT GO _THAT_ WILLINGLY. BUT I WILL HELP YOU THIS TIME! _GOD_."

Articuno, Ellen, and Feolan exchanged smiles, and Mew disappeared.

Feolan blinked. "That was weird."

The quetzal said intelligently, "Mew is on the Seafoam Islands by now. I think he might have remembered where I live…"

The Anti-Trainer wiped the mix of vomit and hair off her head, disgusted. "So we have to fly back?"

"I'm sorry, yes. But we got Mew to come! At least we accomplished that…and he didn't seem too mad at me. I'm surprised." Articuno mustered another small beak-smile, and taking on last look at the strange, lighted land, they flew off.

OoO

Mew appeared on the island in a blink and looked around, taking in the island, the cave, and the…_nest_.

"EGGS!" the kitten shrieked delightedly, baring his brown, sharp carnassials. "_God_, I haven't had anything to eat in, like, fifteen minutes!" He began to float towards the nest, but he barely got even halfway there when a giant, avian shadow appeared in the sky, blocking out the sun, and suddenly unleashed its talons. Mew screamed wildly and ducked, but the bird was upon him instantly and with deranged vengeance and hatred. The bird, filled with thirst for blood…whacked the Legendary on the back of the head. His screams stopped abruptly and Mew looked up, seeing an incredibly angry looking Swellow standing above him.

"Hey, lady, what the frick is your problem? _God_."

"YOU'RE MEW, OBVEOUSLY!" Swellow screamed, planting her sharp talons on the kitten's stomach. "FIRST, YOU TEAR MY MATE'S POWERS AWAY, AND NOW YOU COME BACK TO TRY AND EAT OUR OFFSPRING? WHAT'S _WRONG_ WITH YOU?"

"I…I…Katie wanted me to save that Charizard," Mew gasped, using his mind to pry the sharp claws off himself. Surprisingly, the Legendary's mental powers quickly created a large epitome of strength which sent the bird squawking and flapping off. He resumed floating upright and dug a claw into his nose, devouring the mucus off his paw. "_God_. Those eggs are gonna hatch idiots, anyway. But seriously, Betty asked me to come because if I didn't the shitty world would explode…_yada_…Giovanni massacres thousands…_yada_, you get the point. Now, where's the Charizard?"

"Why should _I_ tell you?" Swellow growled acidly.

There was a sound behind them, and Articuno appeared in a display of feathers and ice. He touched gracefully to the ground before depositing his passengers onto the ground. "Swellow, Swellow, Mew's come to help. There's nothing to worry about."

"Oh," Swellow said bluntly, cocking her non-existent eyebrow at her mate. "Why didn't you tell me before?" Articuno rolled his eyes. "Well, _Mew_, I'll show you were the dragon is."

When the small parade arrived back in the dunes where Kyoshi and Phil still waited patiently, the Persian split a small smile when she was the small, pink feline float to Charles delicately. Mew rubbed his chin for a few moments, tapped his head, and examined the Charizard thoroughly. His paws wavered over the form, thinking a bit. He obviously had hypothermia, and Mew unleashed a raspy chuckle. Everyone on this island was an idiot besides him. _God_. Thinking quickly, he arranged the basic Physic power to healing and leveled out an ethereal base of Physic energy onto the sand. As he wracked his brain for a cure for hypothermia, the kitten added more and more onto the base of energy. Strangely enough, the energy seemed to be form into a living being, a dark, writhing form which took on the appearance of Mew himself, although it was much larger and without any features.

Mew paled when he saw this apparition. "OOooohhhh shit. Hey, are you gonna heal that Charizard, or are you gonna destroy him? _God. _I forget which one I really wanted to do…"

Without warning, the Dark Matter raised a sharp, deadly claw, driving it through Charles's back, ripping through the wall of scales and viscera. The Dark Matter clutched the dragon's backbone, suddenly jerked it wildly, and drove it through the Charizard's neck, spattering blood and gore everywhere. Calmly the Dark Matter shriveled up and went away.

Everyone stared at Mew, mouths agape.

The kitten laughed sheepishly and said, "Whoops. Guess…guess I was so used to killing stuff I sort of forgot…_mumble mumble_…_God_." Mew continued to giggle as clapped his paws together twice, and a great, warm light filled the island. Seconds later, it faded out, and Charles was left healed to perfection, the backbone in its proper place again, the hypothermia dissipated. Slowly, the dragon opened his eyes and blinked, sat up, rubbed his head, and raised one of his non-existent eyebrows.

"Right," he said, confused. "Right. What just happened?"

Kyoshi purred.

OoO

All was (mostly) quiet in the Boss's quarters, or, more importantly, the entrance to the Boss's quarters. It was much, much more formal than the entrance to the Headquarters. While the main entrance was composed entirely of top-notch security, Giovanni's lodgings were much more cultured and connected to the Headquarters in a way quite unorthodox. The plain linoleum tiles of the larger part of the headquarters would abruptly stop and tunnel into a long hallway where the large, tinted, French doors simply enclosed the Boss's quarters. It seemed that while the foyer and majority of the headquarters was much unlike Giovanni, his home seemed to fit him perfectly.

I am sorry to say that this will be the last time we see the two Grunts Madeline and Oleg, for everything is ending, and yet, unaware of what was to come, the two faithful Grunts guarded Giovanni's quarters religiously, no matter how tired or bored they became.

"I'm bored." Madeline the Grunt slouched over a bit and let her arms fall to her sides, leaning back against the doorframe. She yawned and looked around the hallway, turning her black cap to a jaunty angle. The walls were deep crimson, questioning the elegant, white doorway in both color scheme and motive. The floor was composed entirely of black marble, except for a small patch of white stone serving as a doorstep.

Oleg finally gave up trying to be a good, model Grunt and collapsed onto the floor, sitting back against the wall. He checked his watch, reading two in the morning. Groaning, he threw his hat on the ground. "This is insane. I don't understand _why_ we have to guard the Boss's house if he's gone for a year! Can't we just check on it occasionally? No one would even think of stealing anything. It's the Boss's house, for Mew's sake!"

"I'm hungry," the female whined. "They forgot to bring us food."

"Maybe we can take turns going to get something," Oleg suggested, but frowned. "No…we already tried that. What about asking one of the other Grunts we know?"

Madeline scoffed at this and rolled her hazel eyes. "Well, there's Morgan…but…eh, I don't think we want to associate ourselves with her."

The other Grunt grinned. "Boss likes to associate himself with her."

Madeline doubled over in laughter and forgetting she was wearing boots with a five-inch heel, wobbled a bit before falling on the ground, landing with a thump on the white doorstep. This caused the two to laugh even more, before the girl got up and dusted her skirt off casually. She checked her elbows for any kind of cuts or bruises, but none were there.

"Boy," Oleg said, whistling, "it's a good thing you landed on the doorstep; the marble is pretty hard. He tested the white doorstep with the fist, peering at the slight yellowish tint and the occasional perforation or indentation in the material. Pieces of the material were missing from a few jagged holes.

"What kind of rock is _that_? It looks crappy to me."

"Uh, I'm guessing its bone."

Madeline grit her teeth, staring at the dim light surrounding them. "I hate when people use Cubones for useless things…"

The female Grunt continued to look down at the hard material, although she paused and sensed something was wrong. She looked up to see Oleg's severe, grim eyes burning a hole in her head, and Madeline's gut twisted up. Something was amiss. "Madeline," Oleg began very slowly and measurably, as if teaching a small child, "Ah…this isn't Cubone bone. It is much stronger than this and much more bleached. I- I think it might be something other kind…" he bit his lip. "Like _human_."

Without warning, the two Grunts shuffled away from the white tile and resumed their original places, only to come face-to-face with Giovanni.

"_Boss_!" Oleg cried in both shock and unease. "We didn't expect you to come back so soon, sir. Is there anything wrong?" The male Grunt found his answer as the Boss's injuries became apparent, from the bleeding nose to the slashes on his arms. What was most disturbing, though, was that despite the wounds, Giovanni's expression seemed unnaturally good-natured. His dark eyes were bright, he was not shaking in anger, and there possibly was a very small smile on his face.

"You are correct, Grunt," Giovanni began, throwing the subject away. He nodded down at the white tile. "In some ways. This tile is entirely composed of Anti-Trainer bones, grounded down to a fine powder and set in concrete. And do you know what? I killed every single one of them. I can even list them. Five males. Three females." His lips suddenly split into a disquieting grin. "And one more I just did away with. _Fiery Sapphire_. Spread the word, Grunts. Goodbye." With that, he opened the doors and swept in, closing them behind him with a sharp click.

"Fiery Sapphire is _dead_?" Oleg asked himself in awe. "Wow. That's why Boss is so happy…I guess no more rants, huh?" The Grunt had heard enough of Giovanni's wild, passionate ranting of killing and torturing the Anti-Trainer. "I hope he got his fill. Well, enough chat. I got to tell the others!" With a tip of his cap and a grin at Madeline, Oleg sprinted off to tell the news.

Madeline shrugged and proceeded to follow her friend. "Huh. I never cared about Fiery Sapphire, anyway."

Yes, Giovanni's home fit him perfectly.

The Boss wove though the various pieces of furniture in his house, a couch here, a white tile there— he called out to Troy, hoping to report the good news, but his wife was in another part of the Headquarters, having nothing else to do but sulk over the fact that she had a man's name. Finally giving up, Giovanni sat down in a chair and mused over what to do with his time now that Fiery Sapphire was dead. When a drop of blood landed on his hand, he realized that he still had not given attention to his wounds.

Pulling off his black sport jacket, the large blossoms of red blood instantly became apparent against the white of the shirt. Giovanni's arms were drenched in crimson blood, more of Fiery Sapphire's blood than his own, his nose was off-centered a bit and caked with blood, a slight, searing pain forming from it. Parts of his neck and chest had severe burns on them, an eruption of blisters and some even third-degree burns, resulting in patches of grotesque, blackened skin, scabs, and scars. His scalp had small puncture wounds in them and still oozed blood occasionally. Without thinking, he uttered a growl and cast Fiery Sapphire into the hell of his mind, imagining her screaming with pain with the use of several tortures. He continued to think of these things, but he suddenly halted.

He had killed Fiery Sapphire. She was forever cast away. The Boss did not need to worry of Anti-Trainers such as her. Fantasizing about torture was useless, simply because there was no way to inflict any pain. It was even a bit upsetting to him. Despite his ultimate want to kill the Anti-Trainer, her death had been quite boring. Drowning was certainly a bit dull. Giovanni enjoyed death with much more blood, more gore and agonized screaming. Seeing Fiery Sapphire just disappear amongst the clouds and hear her falling into the churning Kanto Sea seemed cheating, in a way.

Giovanni sunk back in the couch's blood-red cushion and directed his weary, dark eyes at the large mirror across the room. The destroyed image of himself surrounded by a regal gold frame held nothing for him. He held up the FS necklace and looked at it curiously, scratching some of the dried blood away from the gold lettering. He smiled wickedly, mirth flowing back into his veins. He now knew why there would be no end to the dreams of torture. Simply stated, there would always be another Anti-Trainer to deal with. He had killed Fiery Sapphire— yes, yes, bravo, Giovanni. This calls for a small celebration, alcohol for the executives and himself. Yet, the Boss knew in the deep recesses of his mind that there were more to kill.

There would always be another one to deal with. Giovanni's breath quickened into short, choked gasps, his heartbeat began pounding. There would be no end to them. Despite them being so few, he could not kill them all before his death. A cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and he quickly swiped a bloodstained sleeve across his head, leaving a trail of blood on his forehead. Reaching for the arm of the couch, the Boss wearily stood up and looked at the haggard form of himself. He should not be like this; anxiety seemed to be controlling him. But there would always be another Anti-Trainer to kill. To _murder_.

No…no…NO!

The necklace was jerked violently from the couch as Giovanni released a roar of fury and clutched the two letters in his tightly gripping fist. His eyes were wide with desperation, and yet his whole body was shivering with rage. Being unmercifully crushed in his palm, the FS looked almost innocent. His head jerked wildly as he screamed, spittle flying from his mouth, "_DIE_! LEAVE! I'VE KILLED YOU! _I'VE KILLED YOU, BITCH_! _YOU ARE DEAD! I killed you_…" his wild outburst turned cold and chilling, his voice quieting drastically into an eerie hiss. "_I am going to kill them. I am going to kill them all. I am going to torture and anguish them. I will snap their bones, I will lodge bullets in their heads, and I will disembowel them. I will do anything to kill them_. _I will_-"

"Gi-Gi? What _happened_?"

Giovanni whipped around to see Troy standing in the doorway, staring at his various wounds with horror clouding her perfect face. She was dressed in one of her normal, black, sleek business suits, and a large pair of thin-rimmed, red cat-eye glasses was perched on her nose. She quickly darted through the room, around an ornate chair, around a white tile. The executive was not usually one to show concern, or in that case any mercy at all, but only for her husband.

"Oh, but- why…how did this happen? Oh, Gi-Gi, this is _horrible_!" She buried her face into his chest and began cry, dissolving into even harsher sobs when she was how bloody he was. Giovanni simply took her shoulders, moved Troy so that she stumbled backwards a bit on her red stilettos. She steadied herself quickly, and her eyes lit up when she was the FS necklace the Boss was holding near eye-level. Her red lips parted slightly in awe, and she swallowed. Giovanni smiled.

"I killed her," he purred venomously. "She is forever resting at the bottom of the Kanto Sea."

Troy frowned for a moment and peered at the necklace, eyes quizzical. "But…how did she get that? And who's 'she'?"

Giovanni's grinned in horrific glee. "Fiery Sapphire, of course? And who the hell cares where she found it? She's _dead_!"

As if there was a great happiness, Troy gasped with glee, breaking into a smile. She caught the Boss in a tight embrace. "_WONDERFUL_!" Giovanni gave her a detailed description of the battle, mostly leaving out times when he was hurt or otherwise bothered. Troy's sick personality was filled with awe and admiration at Giovanni's violent attacks. She craved more, though. Once all the Anti-Trainers were gone, there would be nothing to bother them with. "So, now that you've killed Fiery Sapphire, when are the others going to die?" she asked happily.

"When?" Giovanni repeated, sitting back down on the luxurious couch. He smoothed his hair back in thought, not noticing his hands were coated in dried blood. "Ah, well, that's different. Considering the bitch is dead, it will be much easier to take down the rest, simply because of her death. A few gunshots…although it would be much more enjoyable to bring them back here and torture them."

Troy clapped her petite hands softly. "Sounds delightful." Her face sunk. "But, wait. Do we even know where they are? They could be hiding, for all we know."

The Boss rolled his eyes and smiled thinly, looking at himself in the mirror with dark pride. He was proud of shedding Anti-Trainer blood. "Troy, Anti-Trainers are much too dim-witted to even _comprehend_ how our minds work. They could still be in Saffron, pining away— or perhaps Celadon, where we last found them." His eyes shone. "_That_ was entertaining."

"Now," he continued, "I'm feeling very eager to get this over with. I'll have a medic dress my injuries, and then we can go out." He raised one on his eyebrows provocatively at Troy, who giggled and sat down next to him in return. "You said you wanted some time together…and after we both go and kill the Anti-Trainers…_alone_…"

"We can have our own little celebration," the wicked executive finished. "And the Anti-Trainers will be finished. Gone."

"I bestow upon myself the 'honor' to kill Russell," Giovanni said haughtily, standing up with only a bit of trouble.

Troy followed suite, trailing behind him as they walked out of the room. "That means I get to kill Fredia," the woman snapped.

"Yes," the Boss said all too quickly, and the two villains, anticipating the upcoming massacre, seemed to be as malevolent as ever as they stepped on one of the white tiles and out of the room.

OoO

Fredia Adler was panicking.

She was clutching her hands together, skin ashen. Fredia fumbled with her purse obsessively. The mother was seated in a worn, tan Volvo, courtesy of Russell. When she had found that Ellen was no longer in the house, the woman had panicked and imagined all the horrible things that could have happened to the young Anti-Trainer— but after closer inspection, it seemed that Ellen had planned her escape, although the mother could not fathom why. Keeping his metal hand on the steering wheel, Russell patted Fredia's shoulder, attempting to console her, but failing miserably. "Don't worry. We'll find Ellen. Maybe we can find something at the Anti-Trainer base to help us."

"Or maybe we could…oh; I don't know…_contact some people Ellen actually know_?" Miguel asked irritably from the backseat, fumbling with his glasses.

"Hey!" Red snapped gruffly, furrowing his brow. "Who's the Leader of the Anti-Trainers here?" In the near past, the others would answer with a dutiful: 'You, Red…" but after the strange chain of events, no one answered. There was an uncomfortable silence, and Russell slowly became downcast. "Sorry…Fredia," he mumbled, sinking lower in his seat.

"It's all right," the mother returned, peering out the window. Cerulean City loomed closer and closer into view, the sprawling town a watercolor of slate roofs, diminutive shops, and stone roads. "I admit that I haven't been in the base for a long time. " She fumbled with a strand of her hair nervously. "I just hope we can find Ellen…" She was too frightened to finish the end of her sentence, which would have been, 'I just hope we find Ellen…I don't want another loved one disappearing.' There was a tight knot of worry in her stomach.

Marylyn consoled Fredia for the tenth time by offering her overly dramatic and simply thespian words of comfort— although Crystal did not even know if they would find Ellen, though she wished dearly that they would. To her, she was a very likeable girl, despite unsocial and aloof. "Things _always_ turn out in the end, _dah-ling_, believe me."

The Volvo reached the entrance to Cerulean, a small alcove tucked neatly into a rock formation of the crumbling Mt. Moon, and the passengers quickly departed from the car and walked into the town. Russell had to pull Marylyn away from a small, quaint boutique which was selling _Oozy Couture_ clothing for half price. The group was victorious in ignoring the various distractions around them and entered the Anti-Trainer base, bidding hello to Shrimp, the semi-Anti-Trainer guarding the doorway. Once they entered the base, Miguel quickly logged onto the _Lemon_ computer in the left corner of the room and began typing away, mumbling how useless their attempts were.

"No time for complaining, Miguel," Russell boomed in an important voice. "Check for more clues."

"What the heck am I supposed to be looking up, anyway?" Gold growled, slamming his palm on the desk. He ruffled his straw blond hair uncertainly. "What am I supposed to do, look up 'Ellen Adler' on Poogle? Russ- I mean, Red. Just let me think for a minute. I didn't graduate cum laude for nothing, you know…"

"No," the man replied stubbornly, sitting down on a couch with a book entitled _Maps of Kanto_ in his hand. He flipped open to a heavily detailed page of Pallet Town and began tracing a path with his finger.

"Russell, _plllleeeeeaaaaassssseeee_?" Marylyn whined so pathetically that the man snapped the book shut and rolled his eyes, muttering an agreement.

Miguel sighed in relief and stood up from the desk, rubbing his chin for a few moments. He rolled his eyes. He had not shaved in almost three days, and stubble was forming on his face. Within a few more moments of thinking, the bright young man took the daily newspaper from the oak coffee table placed in the middle of the room, and opened the newspaper up, scanning the pages with his bespeckled eyes. As he was almost to the end of the currents events, his eyes latched onto some strange. Something quite strange indeed. _Viridian Gym Destroyed_.

"Hey, guys," he said slowly, sitting down between Samara and Marylyn. "Look…it's just a guess, but listen to this…" he read the article out loud, pausing over some disturbing details such as gore spattered about the area, the body of a Tamer outside the Gym, and scorch marks on the floors. "I know this sounds morbid, but this might have had something to do with Ellen." Taking a glance at Fredia, he quickly added, "Well, um, of course Ellen survived. Obviously." Although…the future looked as grim as the faces of the Anti-Trainers, and quite suddenly, the future became so grim and detestable that something bad was bound to happen in the near future, and it did.

A few moments later, there was a terrific rumbling outside, not a low and guttural rumbling, but the sounds of pure death— crashing, screaming, cries of pain and hell and everything else violent and wicked, swirling into a tornado of pure chaos. The group of Anti-Trainers and former Anti-Trainers immediately either jumped up or gasped loudly. There was another huge crash, before a high-pitched screech of some deranged avian, and a deep roar.

"What the _hell_?" Russell cried, jumping up immediately. "What the hell is going on?" Another vibration shook Cerulean, and the Anti-Trainers had enough mind to realize that an earthquake was trembling across the city. The Head Anti-Trainer swiftly moved to the doorway and disappeared outside. The other sat, exchanging looks of horror. Moments later, Red returned. The man was incredibly pale; he staggered into the doorway as if many years were taken from his life. "It's an earthquake," he gasped. "A huge earthquake, destroyed the entire city already…and when I looked outside, people were being massacred…being eaten…being crushed…a _huge_ Rhydon. And people were being shot."

"NO!" Marylyn yelped, her voice trembling with anger. She produced a Pokéball from her pocket and brandished it furiously, hate fixated in her brown eyes. "I swear I'm going to show that dirty bastard what happens when he messes with _us_."

"I-I'm confused," Fredia managed to whisper in a dry, tear-choked voice. Dust began to creep through various crevices of the cave, a result of the earthquake. "I've just lost my daughter, now an earthquake is hitting Cerulean City, and you're all speaking in fragments. Can _someone_ elaborate for me?"

Samara touched the mother's arm in a comforting way. "Just calm now. Everything will be all right." The younger Anti-Trainer winced at her false statement. There was no way _everything_ would turn out.

"To put it bluntly, Fredia," Russell began, "Giovanni is attacking the city with his Pokémon. Now." Ignoring the mother, who had paled considerably and whimpered, Red assumed his position as the brave, headstrong Lead Anti-Trainer and asked in a calm, commanding voice, "Does everyone have their Pokémon?"

As the writer of this story, I must interrupt and declare something a bit sad, and perhaps poignant. It was obvious that the Anti-Trainers would have a final confrontation with Giovanni— that one day, the older and more experienced ones would face their enemy…not the final time Ellen would meet Giovanni, per say, but the final time Russell and Marylyn and such people would face the cruel tyrant. I am sorry to say that this final confrontation would be now.

Before anyone could answer, Giovanni and Troy swept through the doorway.

It seemed that Russell's mind suddenly congealed forcefully and prevented him from reacting, although he dearly wanted to unleash his Primeape upon the horrible couple. And no one said a word— perhaps there was no need to, or perhaps Giovanni was too quick in his ways for anyone to react. Yet, as the Boss's lips slowly curved into a toothy grin, the Anti-Trainers knew something extremely terrible had happened. Like a mantra, Fredia's mind pounded and screamed continuously, her world closed up, her vision swam with tears when she saw Giovanni fumble for something in his pocket. His eyebrows rose with victory and he pulled the object up, as plain and clear as the dried blood that spattered it. The FS necklace, though dented and gore ridden, still gleamed brightly in some pathetically hopeful attempt.

"NO!" Fredia howled wildly, lashing forward with her nails, her mental and physical form consumed with an all-hating rage. "WHAT HAPPENED TO HER?" Her nostrils were flared in anger, her eyes were almost crazed. Russell grabbed her wrist with his metal hand and pulled her forcefully back, and despite the motion being well intentioned, his metal hand was much stronger than he thought and the mother cried out in pain. Apology crept into Russell's brown eyes.

Giovanni smiled, a smile spiked with sadistic pleasure and hatred. His smirk flickered. He would have loved to purr Freida's name and ravish her and make her sob with fear and anger, and yet Troy was there beside him, destroying all his fantasies. "If you would like to know, _Fredia_-" he let one, honeyed expression slip. "Your bitch of a daughter is resting at the bottom of the Kanto Sea, cold and _dead_…after a battle at _my_ Gym, of course…" The Anti-Trainers stared at him, shocked. "Oh, you didn't know. Well, I might as well tell you now. I was the Viridian City Gym Leader, the only way to gain entrance to the Pokémon League. Unfortunately," he sighed mockingly, "poor Fiery Sapphire did not win the battle…and my Rhydon was getting restless. Rhydon enjoys blood…and I could not deny my beloved Pokémon its cravings, so I allowed it to drill a hole through the bitch's stomach. And then after a bit, I threw her into the sea and took her necklace as a trophy."

Uttering a small gasp, Fredia stared directly ahead…and broke into frenzied, muffled tears, placing her shaking hands over her face in sorrow, only to tear back her injured arm when a sharp pain shot through her wrist. Ellen…her little girl…her only child…tortured and killed. "Oh _God_…_ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod_…"

Troy cackled wildly, doubling over in her laughter. The woman straightened up, her black Charizard skin pant and shirt set tightening on effort. She lowered her glasses to the tip of her nose spitefully, peering at the Anti-Trainers. "You people are _extremely_ pathetic, you understand that? I mean, look at that broad-" she pointed a red, manicured finger at the wailing mother. "Crying over her _poor_, _misunderstood_, _martyr of a daughter_. How sad…" she pursed her lips. "So sad…"

"Stop it," Marylyn hissed in a low voice, her hand slowly tightening around the Pokéball. She knew it was futile to plead or argue with the two Rockets and with Ellen…_dead_? Reality finally grasped her throat and sucked the breath from her, an unforgiving knot twisted in her stomach. Ellen was dead. A mere teenager had been murdered. She could have been a child in Marylyn's eyes— and some bastard decided she was screwing with his plans to much and drowned her. Just like that. Just as through one would crush a bug beneath their thumb. Her anger grew further.

Giovanni produced his engraved shotgun from his pocket and handled it casually, waving it at the various Anti-Trainers one by one. "Now that Fiery Sapphire is dead, I thought Troy and I would go on a hunting trip and kill all of you, too…and Celadon was a hole full of dirty bastards and whores, so I thought that needed to go, also. Now." He jerked around and aimed the gun at Russell, who had his hand closed tightly around a Pokéball. He stopped, glaring back at the Boss fearlessly. "Well, you've always been so devious, Russell. I can remember the time you _betrayed_ Team Rocket and sided with that dog Kaden— _REMEMBER_?" he roared, face a mask of rage.

"My husband _isn't_ a dog!" Fredia shrieked from behind her hands, wrenching out a muffled sob.

The Boss snapped his gun on her. "_SHUT UP_!" he screamed, wheeling back to Russell. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THE GODDAMN ANTI-TRAINERS! DIE, DIE, DIE, DOGS!"

Marylyn screamed at that exact moment, "DUCHESS, DRAGONBREATH!"

The Altaria opened it's wide, white beak to spew out a terrific burst of blue flame, but before it could even choke up a whisper of dragonfire, Giovanni aim his gun at it and shot only one bullet…which tore through Duchess's thick throat, spattering blood onto his soft blue feathers. The bird launched into a fit of violent spasms, squawking painfully as his neck extended, ruffling the feathers and bone splintering through the throat. He wretched and thumped to the floor, breathing short, raspy coughs, hyper-extending his wings to the point of one twisting to a grotesque position, almost upside down. The Boss sneered and shot him again in the feathered chest, crimson leaking to the ground. The bird abruptly stopped moving and slumped over, the cloudy wings dissolving in the air until there was nothing more than the true shape of an Altaria's wings— monstrous, skeletal wings splayed outwards, displaying the individual bone of each cloud formation.

"My Pokémon!" Marylyn screamed, stumbling away from the hideous corpse lying below her. Her head whipped up at the Boss. The rage finally exploded. "YOU BASTA-"

Giovanni calmly held the gun up and shot her between the eyes.

Marylyn was killed on the spot.

There was no use describing the grief the Anti-Trainers were experiencing as they saw their close companion's forehead be punctured by the bullet not cleanly, but rather messily. Her forehead immediately split open on impact, puncturing her brain and parts of her nervous system, instantly triggering dozens of mini-seizures through her body that wracked her bones. Blood seeped down her face, her hands twisted into almost bird claws, her mind had ceased to exist and her soul had already floated off to one of the many Dimensions of Kanto. Despite her quick death, the cruel bullet had given her just enough time to experience the full-blow pain that instantly drove her to the point of insanity, although she never had time to experience it. The pain ripped her in half, peeled off her skin, broke every bone in her body. And, thus, another Anti-Trainer was dead.

"Oh _Gi-Gi_!" Troy squealed adoringly, turning around and smothering his face with kisses. "I love you! You're so brave and handsome and- oh, I could just screw you right now! Oh…" she looked back at the Anti-Trainers and grinned. "Sooorrryyy."

While Russell, Miguel, and Fredia were staring, horrified, at Marylyn's corpse, Samara stood, her glare fixated on Troy and whispered, "Bitch." She was tired of being invisible. Tired of sitting in the shadows, watching. Marylyn had just been shot and killed— what were they supposed to do, sit and watch? "Bitch!"

This seemed to inflame the woman to no extent. Troy whipped her head around to stare at the young woman. "WHAT DID YOU SAY, YOU LITTLE SHIT?" she screamed, trying to ensnare the gun from Giovanni's strong gasp. "Let me kill her! LET ME KILL HER, GIOVANNI!"

"Troy, you're wasting time-"

The Boss was interrupted by a bloodcurdling roar from directly outside the cave, and with each decibel rising above in a series of guttural rumbles, the ground seemed to shake terrifically. A large, grey Pokémon stuck its head through the doorway and roared again, displaying its sharp, yellow carnassials. The huge drill on Rhydon's snout seemed it had been cleaned in a futile effort, as reminiscent of gore was tucked into the various jagged grooves of the drill.

The Rhydon growled lowly, snorting, and seemed to say, '_I am going to kill you all and enjoy doing it_.'

Giovanni looked back at the Anti-Trainers with a hateful, superficial smirk and sneered haughtily, "I am going to kill you all, and enjoy doing it."

OoO

After Ellen and crew had exchanged many thank-yous with Articuno, Swellow, and Mew, and Articuno assured them he would always remember them.

"And don't worry about the Headquarters," Articuno said, winking good-naturedly. "You'll do great."

For a split second, the Anti-Trainer really _did_ believe that he could read minds, but simply shook it off. The group assembled on Charles once more, the Charizard feeling incredibly revived after Mew's little healing spree. As they left and as Articuno and Swellow were waving their wings as goodbye, Mew floated grumpily in the air, paws crossed. He tilted his head to look at the dragon speeding away like a rocket— or perhaps like a bullet— or perhaps like…something flickered in Mew's mind. Deep in the cavernous, filth-ridden recesses of his mind, a memory triggered. And he was gone, leaving the two birds staring into space.

On their way to Pallet Town, the teammates chatting as if nothing traumatic had happened in the past, the sun was rising quietly. At least a day had past, perhaps two days. Kanto was bathed in dawn…and yet dawn was neither rosy-fingered nor bright. The dawn…seemed cold and uninviting, a bleak gray sky held nothing for Kanto. Nevertheless, the travelers were happy to fly back home and see their friends and family again, even though they knew that Rayquaza did not exist and if they tried even _thinking_ about getting into the Headquarters, life would transform into a twisted, bloody gash with no hope whatsoever. Oh, the woe.

"Well, here we are!" Charles exclaimed cheerfully, as Pallet Town sprung from the earth in a series of small houses. The dragon craned his neck downwards and smiled. "Ah, there it is. Home sweet home." He extended his bony wings, one having a large, light scar traced across it, and touched down on the street, grumbling as a car honked at him unnecessarily.

They dismounted and shuffled onto the sidewalk, Ellen grabbing a piece of her blood-clotted hair and letting it fall through her fingers. "Aw, hot damn. I got to take a shower. I don't even want to _think_ about what's in here. My hair is a pile of shit. I _feel _like a pile of shit."

"Ellen," a surprised, feminine voice said from behind her. "You look like a pile of shit." The Anti-Trainer whipped around, muscles tense. Brendan stood, smiling, a thick stack of paper tucked under his arm. He was no longer wearing a headband and let his white hair fall behind his ears, and his red goatee now looked even stranger. For some odd reason, he was clad in a garish pink shirt, jeans, and a long black opera cape trailing on the ground. "You look HORRIBLE! Almost as horrible as my protagonist in my story I just comprised— which _will_ win the writing contest I just entered. As I was saying, you really do look like shit, and your mother has almost gone off the deep end with worry." He patted her warmly on the back and gave her a tight, friendly hug. "What a fine mess you've made, Ellen! Your mother told me that if you came home, you should go straight to Cerulean…would it be the Anti-Trainer base you were describing before you 'mysteriously disappeared?'" Ellen nodded, and Brendan smiled proudly. "I was always good at remembering things. My dad will drive us there…and I can hear all the juicy details."

"But…how did you know I came back?" Ellen asked suspiciously.

"Ellen, when a huge Charizard is flying through the air, it isn't exactly _invisible_. I was up in my room and came running outside— just be lucky I was awake, busy at writing…it's only 4 A.M."

After a brief interlude of Ellen unlocking her house and wandering in, taking only a minute to change clean up, change clothes, and grab her backpack, she stepped outside again. Collin Birch looked quite surprised to see the Anti-Trainer suddenly appear, but still acted nicely and herded the two teens into the large, silver SUV, successfully cramming Charles into the spacious trunk. Feolan smirked at the Charizard as he sat carefully between Ellen and Brendan, Kyoshi and Phil sitting on the ground. They drove off, the girl finally muttering her Gym battle to the writer, taking care not to alert Birch. Occasionally, Collin would peer through the rearview mirror and smile cheerfully. Brendan and Ellen would smile back.

"You are one helluva neighbor," the boy hissed at her with admiration, pausing to wipe his nose on the black cape. He turned back to the car window and drifted into a dazed state of mind, staring dreamily out the window. Ellen could only imagine what he was thinking. "You know," he said, turning back to her, "if I was Giovanni, I would have just kicked you in the throat a couple of times and been done with it."

"_Brendan_!" Collin chastised sharply, shaking his head. "What's gotten into you lately? You've been so violent for the past few days."

"I'm a writer," the boy returned cryptically and dramatically. "I can't help it if my inner antagonist is shining through." His father simply gawked and eventually relaxed, concentrating on driving again. Mt. Moon's dark, shining peaks and shadows, bright against the gray sky, quickly passed them by. Cerulean City slowly crept upon them…yet there was a problem.

There simply was no Cerulean City.

As the group exited the car, a haunted, desolate wasteland greeted them. The ground was a flat plain, devoid of any streets or buildings except for the debris littered about. Tall buildings had collapsed with ease, toppling over like a child's building blocks, the concrete exteriors crushing citizens beneath it, only to have the bodies combust and splatter blood against the ground, heads crushed like melons; large, moist slices of bone scattered close to collapsed buildings. There were Pokémon half torn apart, their spines sticking out of their torn, jagged bodies grotesquely. A large dust cloud hovered over the area, unmoving and thick with the stench of death. Broken trees were swept across great, horrible mounds of half-dismembered bodies, large chunks bitten from corpses. Flies already flocked around the area, greedily gnawing at the dead.

Collin Birch's hands were shaking. "Stay in the car," he commanded, immediately shutting the car door behind him and surveying the area in horror.

"No." The Anti-Trainer beckoned her Pokémon to come out with her. "Something bad happened."

"Evidently," the boy said tiredly as he watched the girl exit the car with her Pokémon. Before Professor Birch could call her back, Ellen was already trudging through the massacre, climbing over buildings, staring in dread at the corpses littered around her, trying to vain to reach the Anti-Trainer base. Terror almost radiated from the scene and curled around Ellen's neck, choking her. "Ellen," Brendan screamed hoarsely, his voice distant as he scrabbled off after her. "Ellen, wait up! _Nooo_, this is story material!"

At last, they climbed over the last chunk of building and saw the entrance to the Anti-Trainer base, the small moat that was originally placed around it drained and mostly destroyed. A corpse lay in the drained moat, floating in the shallow water. The body was bloated with death, eyes rolled back into its head, the cadaver rigid and cold. Already a stench of death hung onto it. It almost acted as a warning…

'"_Fiery Sapphire…" he crooned in a sing-song voice. "Fiery Sapphire…come out…wouldn't it be nice to end this? I promise it will be quick if you surrender now…I want to kill you. Kill you as a warning to all Anti-Trainers. Kill you so I may be content."'_

"SHUT UP!" Ellen screamed wildly, earning glances from all of her Pokémon. She blinked and looked around, uttering a sharp breath. "Uh…sorry…let's…let's just go in."

Ellen quickly entered the building, her mind awash with rational and irrational fears…and saw that one of her irrational fears had come to be rational. The Anti-Trainers, including Fredia, stood on one side of the large room, displaying mixed emotions. On the other side was Giovanni and Troy, both smiling wickedly as Russell glared and Fredia cowered and Samara quietly rebelled and Miguel muttered with hate. Behind, looming over Giovanni like a shield was his bloodthirsty, huge Rhydon, still except for the occasional grumble. One Anti-Trainer seemed to be missing…_Marylyn_. The girl's throat closed up. A corpse, distinctly belonging to Marylyn, was sprawled out on the floor, her head mostly torn up or split apart. No!

"Don't go in!" Phil hissed. "You'll get blasted! See…Giovanni's got a gun!"

"I just can't wait out here and watch them get shot down," Ellen returned shakily. "I _need_ to go in..."

The girl's muscles tensed when Giovanni cocked his head slightly and swiveled around to face the doorway, pointing his gun directly at Ellen's head. "Who's there?" he asked sharply.

As if he picked a very unfortunate moment to ruin, Brendan suddenly tore past Ellen and grabbed her by the arm, yanking her in along with him. "All right, let's see what we can…" his voice dropped when he saw the assembly before him, eyes roving from Fredia to Russell to Samara to Giovanni and back again. "_Shit_."

Giovanni's face drained of color when he saw the Anti-Trainer, a feat that did not trounce the Boss very easily. His eyes widened as if a ghost had appeared before him, he stumbled backwards, and his words came out grating and desperate. "You…are…_dead_. Why are you not dead? YOU GODDAMN BITCH, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE _DEAD_," he screamed, stepped forward menacingly. Ellen flinched, and Giovanni's face cracked into a grin and he laughed uproariously as the youngest Anti-Trainer simply stared at him. "You might not have died, but you're still _scared of me_! Scared of the enemy who is going to KILL, KILL, _KILL_ HER."

"Leave her alone!" Fredia cried out suddenly, pushing past Russell, stepped over Marylyn's corpse stoutly. The two Rockets simply watched as she hugged her daughter tightly, pressing her face against Ellen's head of hair.

The Boss rolled his eyes. "I might as well use one bullet to kill two dogs."

"Oh," Troy tittered excitedly, smile as wide as a child craving for sweets, "may I have the honor?"

The mother released Ellen from her hug, keeping her hands on her daughter's shoulders protectively. She glared at Giovanni, her voice shaking. "I-if…you try and h-hurt my d-daughter again, I-I'll…"

"Fiery Sapphire is nothing more than a pig. A mistake to exist. A bitch," Giovanni snapped coldly to the woman, his cruel dark eyes burning a hole into Ellen's mind. Fredia again hugged her daughter tightly, wanting to protect her from the world. "Kaden is the only reason she exists, goddamn him. If you had never…" his sentence trailed off silently, Giovanni sighing. The Boss's face had changed to incensed cruelty as he raised his gun to target them. "No matter. It has already been done. There's no way to solve it other than to kill Fiery Sapphire."

"You can't kill me," Ellen retorted. A newfound courage bloomed inside her. "A Rhydon destroyed half my body. I drowned. But…I'm still here. I guess _I'm_ the invincible one now, huh?"

Giovanni's color returned to his face and he smirked, still holding up the gun. "Hmm, it's surprising you're so confident in yourself now, when two days ago you were crying, practically pleading for death…sobbing..."

"You're _lying_!" Russell suddenly yelled, advancing on Giovanni with determined intimidation. "Fiery would _never_ be so cowardly! You're just some lying, arrogant, murdering bastard." He put his fists up, preparing for a fight if need be.

"Get away from me, pig." The Boss swiveled his gun to point at Russell's head. His smirk disappeared; a dark, twisted vein pulsed in his neck. "I'm going to rip your spine out…"

"Your Rhydon already ripped by arm off." Red held up his metallic forearm, his face darkening. "I think you should be satisfied with that. Why not let the others go and you can shoot me. Fair enough?"

Although this would have been a touching and dramatic scene if this had happened, Giovanni laughed and stared at the man haughtily, his mirth immediately disappearing. "I want to kill _all of you_, not _one_. That would be utterly pointless. In fact…" he backed up a few steps closer to his Rhydon and spread his arms out, shrugging. "I suppose it's time for all of you to die. Now…RHYDON, MEGAHORN!" The Pokémon snapped to attention and tilted its head back to roar triumphantly, swishing its hammer-like tail back and forth, sweeping away bookcases and furniture onto to have them crushed against a wall. The hunched over Rhydon tossed its head and after Giovanni and Troy casually moved away, tore forward in a brutal attempt to impale Russell.

Red swiftly moved out of Rhydon's way and stumbled backwards as the behemoth again charged forward, scattering the Anti-Trainers. Cries of fright rang up. Professor Birch hysterically tried to pull Brendan away from the scene, only to have his son brush him off curtly and claim that 'a writer must have experience.' Furniture was smashed as Rhydon charged by, bookcases were destroyed, computers were reduced to sparking piles of machinery. Feolan exchanged worried glances with Ellen. Charles bravely took flight above the scene and followed the Rhydon, careful to avoid ramming into any walls. The Charizard opened his jaws and collected heat, suddenly choking out a large tongue of flame at his enemy. The ground Pokémon simply shrugged it off and swiped a claw at the Charizard, causing him to tumble through the air. The dragon flapped his wings and flipped in the air, quickly regaining his balance. Fredia never once left her daughter's side, for fear that she would lose her again. Even when Ellen's Pokémon urged her to fight with them, the woman held steadfast and refused to let his battle.

"Mom-"

"No," she answered curtly, tears blotting her eyes.

Suddenly, Ellen felt a cold hand close painfully around the back of her neck, and she was torn away from Fredia with a vicious strength. The young Anti-Trainer stumbled backwards and hit the rough wall, her body aching. She uttered a sharp yelp of surprise as Giovanni appeared in front of her, pinning her to the wall and grinning.

"Hello," he snarled, raising the handgun to eyelevel offhandedly. His grin twitched. "You need to die." He viciously put the gun to her head, jabbing the barrel at her senselessly. Behind his suit-clad shoulder, Fredia's face changed from terror to extreme loathing, her blue-grey eyes sparking with anger. She stealthily, swiftly advanced on Giovanni, curling one of her hands into a fist, her motherly instincts heightening. Just as the Boss placed the gun on Ellen's forehead, the mother swung her fist foreword and hit Giovanni square in the eye. The man cursed loudly as the girl knocked the gun away from her forehead and quickly ducked away as a gunshot sounded behind her, the bullet driving into the wall. The wall. The spot she was only two seconds ago.

Fredia looked superficially proud once she was by Ellen's side. Giovanni regained his normal, regal stance and rubbed his hurt eye until it was an eerie bloodshot red, almost mimicking the Rhydon's eye. He blinked once or twice and his sight focused again. Hate consumed him. Fredia…the object of his previous love (he refused to believe he still loved her) had injured him…she had sided with Fiery Sapphire, the scum.

Giovanni screamed with fury, "THIS IS INSANE! RHYDON, MEGAHORN! HORN DRILL! ROCK THROW! EVERYTHING! KILL THEM." Rhydon suddenly stopped and roared with confusion, its bellow sinking into a pathetic whine. There was dead silence, when the Pokémon suddenly became aware of Charles buzzing around its head like a fly. With a simple sweep of its deadly claw, Rhydon threw the Charizard across the room and slamming into a wall, letting him tumble to the ground next to Fredia and Ellen.

"I'm all right," he managed to croak, giving a claws-up.

"Ellen," a kind voice said, Samara sprinting up to her, "you need to leave. Russ says that this is too dangerous for you and your Pokémon…and I second that…take your friend with you…"

"I third that," Ellen's mother replied hastily, giving her daughter a knowing, steady gaze. "Ellen, I want you to get back home with Brendan and your Pokémon _right now_."

"No."

"Ellen," she said, a maternal tone creeping in her voice.

"_No_."

"ELLEN, LEAVE!" Fredia had reached the point in which she was shaking her daughter's shoulders, the mother dissolving in tears. Charles upturned himself and walked over to the two, latching onto his friend's arm with his claw and jerking her away fervently. Ellen tripped and stumbled behind him, futile in her protesting and babbling. Phil and Kyoshi followed curiously, with Feolan emerging from the battlefield, quickly leaping after them.

The last thing the young Anti-Trainer heard was this:

Giovanni screaming, "GET BACK HERE, YOU WHORE! I'LL KILL YOU!" He became silent. "Fredia," he began in a soft, deadly calm voice, "don't make me hurt you. You wouldn't like it if I tried to rape you again, would you? Just to see if Kaden _really_ corrupted you. Just one last time. Just-"

"GIOVANNI," the voice of Russell roared, "DON'T…EVEN…THINK ABOUT IT!"

"_GI-GI!"_ Troy sang rather desperately, her voice breaking, "I want to kiss you and then STRANGLE FREDIAAAAA!"

The girl was thrown back into reality as Charles tugged her impatiently on the arm and said, "That's enough. If you want to live…"

"I know, I know!" she returned sharply, the Pokémon assembling on the dragon's back. Charles took off once again, circling the city one last time. The breeze picked up into a strong wind, blowing against the travelers harshly. Just as this chapter had swiftly moved from better to worse, the wind seem to undulate slowly, first a light breeze and then a strong gale. Ellen constantly moved the hair from her face, but not because of the wind. Out of sheer anxiety.

There was a deep, vibrating sound from somewhere, and the group looked down.

Ellen watched in horror as a great rumbling shook the ground, and, quite suddenly, the Anti-Trainer base began to split apart, web-like began to tunnel through the strong rock, creating a sharp popping noise that even those from above could hear. Almost slowly, the base began to break apart, piece by piece…and then the collapse came in full, the top of the cave almost imploding on itself as it dragged down the sides of the base with it. The thick rock crumbled around the figure of Rhydon, who seemed to be guarding something or someone (most likely Giovanni and Troy). The bipedal rhinoceros simply uttered a sharp roar and shook some of the gravel off its arms, lowering its head to nudge around in the rubble.

The base had collapsed. Hmm.

Suddenly, something triggered in Ellen's mind, something so devastating that it nearly drove the girl mad.

"Everyone was in there," she said quietly. "And the base collapsed and…and…_they're dead_!" Realization hit her. Her family, her friends! Dead!

"_NO! NO!_" Charles twisted and turned through the air, his giant, orange mass strangely lithe and supple. Ellen sobbed hysterically as she sat on the dragon's back in a huddled mass, beating his fist against Charles's taut shoulder. No matter how much the other Pokémon tried to console the last Anti-Trainer, there would be no relief for a girl who had just lost almost all her friends and family. The dragon resembled a burning effigy as he splayed his orange wings like flames— flickering once before disappearing and tucking in, plummeting, ascending, and flicking in the dreary sky once more. Charles had no clue as to where they were going. The Anti-Trainer Base was destroyed, Pallet Town would not be safe, and the mainland of Kanto would simply be massacred if Giovanni set foot on it, (with a couple dozen Grunts, of course.) His only hope was to fly back to Articuno and Mew. Perhaps they would help, considering Mew already saved his life once and Articuno was willing to face his fears for him.

Feolan's ears pricked up from a slight, odd sound, and he craned his neck around to see where the noise came from. Far behind them, two avian shadows followed quietly. One, detectable by its long, needle-like beak, a Fearow, and the other slightly reptilian…the Mightyena could only guess. "Charles," he barked, causing the Charizard's head to snap up in attention. "Behind us! There's-"

The wolf was silenced by a low growl in Charles's throat, and the dragon nodded his head at the shivering, sobbing Ellen. He brought his claw up to his snout in an attempt to make a silencing motion, but he found that Phil was clinging onto his claw neurotically, screaming, "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! WE'RE ALL GONNA _DIEEEEEEEE_!"

"PHIL!" Charles roared, shaking his arm so violently that the Swampert began crying.

"We can just ignore two homicidal Rockets behind us!" Feolan yelped over his teammate's sobs, pounding his paw on Charles's back. "Jeezus, Charles, can't you fly any faster!?"

Charles answered something in reply, and for a split second, Ellen felt them accelerate in speed…although it might have been another delusion brought on by extreme distress. Her memory would be forever burned with the sight of the Anti-Trainer base crumbling around the snarling Rhydon. To see her teammates, dead. To see her close friend and his father, dead. To see her own mother, dead. Her mind was nothing more than a tomb of misery, nothing more than a resting place for melancholy and hatred and violence. Had she gone insane? Perhaps her emotions were a bit too strong for human instincts, but she could always blame her Pokémon instincts. The instincts were very small and useless ordinarily, but now, as her soul had been destroyed almost to the point of death, she could blame her confused and twisting thoughts on perhaps a Gyarados, or a Blaziken, or a Tyranitar, or…or…or…or…

This is what Ellen was thinking: "_dead dead they're all dead and im the only one and they're gonna get me and he's gonna get me and torture and kill kill kill me and everyone else and i just wanna get him back for that i just wanna kill everybody in team rocket I wanna kill giovanni and shoot him and make him dead and then everything would be over and over and over and ov-_'

"_I FOUND YOU_!" Giovanni screamed, and Feolan found him to be catching up to them. Skimming the water below, Troy laughed. There was a gunshot, but the Boss was to far away to even think about clipping the group.

Ellen involuntarily wiped the tears from her eyes and looked up, squinting her eyes when the cold wind hit her. The gust was much stronger, for a some odd reason, and as the Anti-Trainer turned around to face the figure of Giovanni and his Aerodactyl, she was almost thrown off Charles. Even the Charizard had trouble controlling his flight.

The Boss screamed gleefully, "HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY, BITCH?" He was so close that she could see his malevolent grin, eyes as dark as death, cruel hands grasping the gun.

Ellen stared at him. And stared. Her jaw twitched, her expression emotionless. And, very slowly, she extended her hand into a fist and raised her middle finger, simmering in petty insult and hatred. Suddenly, there was a violent tug of wind, so harsh then it threatened to almost break Ellen's back. Charles suddenly roared with surprise as the wind picked up almost to a hurricane, a whistling sound screaming in his ears, and the group was tugged away wildly, a multitude of screams and shrieks howling around them. The Anti-Trainer was almost thrown off Charles, Phil bawled nonstop and paused to vomit, Feolan howled uselessly, and Kyoshi simply tried to create a Physic barrier around Ellen's mind to keep her from going insane. The wind continued to swoop them forward and Giovanni and Troy disappeared from sight. The sky turned from a light gray mottled with clouds to a dizzy, blurry white, and the dark Kanto Sea, churning with hungry waves below, loomed closer and closer. As Ellen thought the end of the world had come and she and her Pokémon would be the only ones to see it, the ground, sea, and air spun together with a powerful vacuum sense, and the earth hit her with a vicious thud, her elbow screaming with pain as she landed on hard, packed sand. Her head hit a lump of grainy land, making a dull pain thump in her temples. Milliseconds later, a limp, canine body fell on top of her, scrabbling and howling loudly.

Opening her eyes, the Anti-Trainer blinked away sand and saw that they had landed on a small, barren island, littered with tall, green stalks on dune grass and a sharp, salty taste of the sea. Or that could have been the bile was rising in her throat. Whatever. At least the girl could no longer see Giovanni or Troy circling above. The Pokémon groaned painfully and flexed their muscles, rubbing their bruised limbs.

"What the hell?" Charles mumbled wearily, tenderly rubbing a purple, uneven bruise on one of his bony head-crests. He looked around, senses alert. "Where _are_ we?"

"An uncharted island," Kyoshi answered politely, her head hovering over the Charizard's shoulder.

"Obviously." The dragon turned his head to send Kyoshi a cynical look, only to bump muzzles with her and fizzle into awkward little apologies that otherwise left the Persian smiling.

As this scene seemed quite lighthearted and lovely, a much darker scene was playing farther away. Ellen was sitting on the beach cross-legged, her almost destroyed backpack sitting in her lap. Sticking her hand into the main compartment and rooting around for a bit, the girl sighed deeply. She choked back tears and despite her normal dull-witted appearance, thought very carefully about what she was doing. Just as she was about to give up, her fingers brushed against something cold and sharp. With a mirthless smile, she slowly dislodged Donovan's knife from her backpack, remembering the S.S. Anne and the Berry Forest. The knife was long and deadly, its tip sharp enough to impale a body. Ellen stared at it for a bit before staring down at her wrist, examining the thin flesh covering the dark green veins like a veil. Her thoughts flickered. She had never attempted this before. Perhaps slitting her throat was easier. Or perhaps cutting her wrist to the point of to much blood loss…she quickly made her decision and rubbed the knife against her wrist, not enough to cut through but very softly, a deadly caress.

_I'd rather_, Ellen thought, _die by my own means than by Giovanni's_.

As she ran the blade against her wrist once more, a large fin/paw loomed into few and snatched the knife away from her grasp. The Anti-Trainer shouted, "Hey!" and turned around, wrist still poised in front of her to see Phil, holding the knife in one of his fins. Tears streaked his already moist, slick face and he sniffled.

"What are you doing?" he yelled, choked by tears. The Pokémon all turned to stare at them, their gazes disoriented. The Anti-Trainer dissolved into guilt. "What's wrong, Ellen? Are you sad? Guess what? I'm sad! You know why? Because…because you- you're trying to make yourself _dead_!" Kyoshi gasped softly, and the Swampert continued in a shout, the knife slipping from his grasp, "Gee, Ellen, I don't want you to die! You're like a mom to me! Why are you doing that? What about us? What about me and Feolan and Kyoshi and Charles? Gosh, Ellen, I can understand that you're real sad and stuff, but…don't leave us. You need to clean up some things before you go…and you won't be goin' for a long time." Phil exhaled slowly, wiped his nostrils. "k', I'm finished." With that, he turned to the sea and picked the knife off the ground, drawing his fin back. He tossed the blade through the air, watching it ascend and descend…only to see a explosion of pink glitter appear in the air and Mew simply pop into thin air, catching the knife with ease. The pink kitten grinned, his lips curling away from bloodstained jaws.

There was silence.

"Muh-Mew?" Feolan asked, struck. He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts and gawked again. "MEW!"

"Hey, shitheads!" Mew greeted jovially, tossing the knife back and forth between his two paws. He smirked at the blade thoughtfully before levitating it into Ellen's backpack again. "_God_, I haven't seen you losers for, like…_evuh_. Oh, and Katie or Betty or Ellen or whoever you are— next time you try relieving the world of another scummy human, I suggest turning to _me_ for help." He winked at her knowingly, which she merely frowned at. "I can eat you real quick. It won't hurt much, you might scream a little, but…meh. I think it's inhumane to kill people before I eat them. 'Sides, takes all the fun out of it. _God_."

"Whatdya want, asshole?" Ellen spat. She closed her backpack and stood up slowly, glaring at Mew. "You want to make my life worse or _what_?"

The kitten shrugged playfully and floated over to the girl, circling her head lazily. He settled himself on her shoulder and leaned towards her head, his sharp little teeth gnawing on her ear with greed. With that, he unleashed a vulgar, thunderous, and frankly, illegal belch before shrieking with insane laughter. "No, no, seriously, I came for a reason! _God_. I want to help you pathetic boogers out. Really. It seems…after I healed Charles, my heart grew _four sizes bigger that hour_, so much to the point that it split my chest cavity like a water balloon. But that's another story. _God_. You won't believe the surprise I'll have for you…you'll _die_." Chucking, he floated into the air and lightly glided to a simple sand dune. The Pokémon came and watched with fascination, Feolan rubbing against Ellen's hand and Charles patting her shoulder, a worried expression on his face.

"Ellen-" Kyoshi began.

"I'm fine," she replied bluntly.

"Fat chance on that," Feolan interjected hotly, now baring his teeth in a grimace. "You listen to me, got it? What the frick is wrong with you? Honestly, you escape from Giovanni trying to murder you and then you want to commit suicide. I don't get it. Stop it, okay?"

Ellen nodded, stuffing her hands in her pockets.

Mew danced merrily in the air, humming a little tune that seemed to reverberate across the island. He held out his paws, invisible Physic energy leaking from them. Kyoshi watched with admiration. Despite Mew being a gluttonous, spiteful, vulgar Pokémon, he was excellent in Physic mastery. The kitten slowly began to sweep away layers of sand, working slowly at first but heightening in speed until he was throwing about great lumps of sand rapidly. When Mew swept the last stray layer of sand and gravel away and wiped off his paws, smiling, the others saw that there was a slick metal doorway embedded in the ground, large hinges locking it tightly, small, filtered vent-openings slit in the metal.

Ellen bent down to examine it, brushing her fingers over the warm iron. "What the hell is this for?"

"If you really want to know…it's your ticket to the Team Rocket Headquarters."

The Anti-Trainer suddenly doubled over and crawled back and her hands and knees as it the Rockets were going to pop out that very second. Her head pounded. Bile rose in her throat.

"Huh?" Feolan and Phil said.

"I'll say it again," Mew intoned. "It. Is. Your. Ticket. To. The. Team. Rocket. Headquarters. _God_ You wanna know how I found this little baby?"

Everyone nodded.

"TO BAD!" The kitten roared, dissolving into hysterics. He clutched his stomach, still giggling. "I don't tell secrets to shits like you guys, but since you got me out of that sticky situation in the forest, I thought I might repay you in some way." He turned to look at Ellen, and his next words came out quietly. "And trust me, you'll do fine in the Headquarters. _God_. I can even help you, if you want."

"Really?" Ellen looked hopefully up at Mew, her throat raw, her body shivering from cold. She was aware that her lips were turning blue. What a way to live… She nodded at the vent, head bobbing unintentionally. "This…this goes right to the HQ? But how? And where does it end up?"

"There's only one downside to it. This vent travels under the Kanto Sea…for about half a mile, maybe more. It's too strong to break, but you might wet yourself when you're crawling through a dark, dank tunnel with quick death the only thing to look forward to- whoops, I didn't say that! Just kidding. But seriously, you can get in there unnoticed…but I'll let you figure out where it leads. I ain't telling you now."

"Mew," Charles began shakily, "I'm not too keen on crawling through a tunnel that I can barely fit through, all the way under the Kanto Sea. Would there be any other way?"

The God of Kanto blinked, rubbing his bloodstained chin thoughtfully. His eyes lit up with realization. "Ah, right. I have this great way Charles and me can go— but it only works in a small group, so the rest of you'll have to go by the vent. Me and Charles are going aerial, so it'd be to obvious if _all_ of you went. _God_. Here." With an overly majestic sweep of his paw, the vent covering toppled off and flew into the sea with a loud splash. "Now, Katie, are you ready or what?"

Ellen thought. Was she ready? Was she ready to take on the Headquarters, devoid of friends or family besides her Pokémon and the crude, suspicious Mew? Without the non-existent Rayquaza? The girl was miserable, no doubt, and yet she craved not only revenge, but also a sense of goodness towards Kanto. The region could not stay as the state it was it— people could not be murdered, Team Rocket could not hurt people if she stopped them. Would they leave the state of Kanto in the hands of a stupid, weak, teenage girl? The girl with the dull gray eyes and thin brown hair— the girl with the almost malnourished limbs and dimwitted mind— the girl who's father simply went to work one day and walked out his wife and daughter? But wait. The last fragment changed for her. Not, '_the girl who's father simply when to work one day and walked out on them_,' but, '_the girl who's father was the Head of the Anti-Trainers and created the group simply to make Kanto a safer place, throwing himself into all sorts of situations_.' Ellen nodded. Hot damn.

"I'm ready," she sighed. Feolan, Kyoshi, and Phil scooted up to her, Charles walked forward.

"Déjà vu," Mew muttered.

"What?" asked Ellen.

"Nothing."

The Charizard patted her on the shoulder with his warm, comforting claw again and growled softly. "You need to be careful, all right? Remember that Anti-Trainer Promise that Russell told you? 'Never succumb to Team Rocket'? Right, remember that…because that's the same as suicide. Just…don't leave us, promise? I'll meet up with you somewhere in the Headquarters. It'll be okay."

"I know," the girl said, although she really did not know.

"We're here for you," Feolan said. "Now, let's kick ass! WHOO!" He yipped happily and laughed.

Everyone stared at him.

"It's not the time," Kyoshi said darkly. "This isn't the time."

OoO

_Twelve years ago, Kaden Adler stood by the very same vent Ellen was about to crawl into, although the state of his mind was not focused on the horrible feeling of lost friends and family, but the feeling of unsure, uncertain, and certainly nerve-wracking tension. He looked around the barren island, taking in the gray sky, the waves warmed by the June air, the small, pink, kitten that was staring at him intently. Indeed, Kaden had become a bit worried when he noticed the kitten poorly hidden in a clump of sea grass. He knew it was Mew, the titular God of Kanto, but from the way it was staring at him…it would have been eerie, except that Mew was actually the one who had shown him the vent. At least, he thought Mew had shown him the vent. Be it a strong wind or a Legendary Pokémon who had tossed Nash and himself off course, forced to land on the island, the kitten seemed to be vastly interested in what he was doing._

_Nash the Noctowl hooted with agitation as he was returned to his Pokéball. Mew's ears twitched slightly and his large, china-blue eyes blinked, absorbing all sight and sound calmly. Kaden, on the other hand, still feared the worst. He pocketed Nash's Pokéball and quickly bent down to examine the mechanisms of the vent. There was obviously an advanced, mechanical element to it, and it looked quite sturdy for a shaft leading under the Kanto Sea. His pale skin paled even further. One simple tear, one simple hole in the vent and…water would fill up the enclosed space, drowning him slowly and painfully. His hand tensed around the handgun he was carrying. Yes, that was another thing. He was carrying a gun. Kaden constantly had to remind himself that it was solely for the good of Kanto. He was not murdering senselessly, cruelly, as Giovanni had done, and was doing now. It still scared him, though— he had gotten by other missions using only fists, kicks, and surviving on the things around him. This was the same as punching. This was the same as cracking a Grunt over the head with an iron pole._

_Yet, through all this, he felt so much older. Kaden's appearance may not have changed greatly, but he still felt worn. He was no longer just a young man angered by the state of Saffron City— he was a father now, not meant be involved in things that would endanger himself or his family. Kaden had lied to Fredia, which was another thing. He claimed he was going to his normal job, but instead he had flown to the Team Rocket Headquarters one last time, just to see if there was still hope in destroying Team Rocket. He would not be with his fellow Anti-Trainers, but only his Noctowl and Breloom. The stakes would be much higher. Was this a stupid thing to do?_

_No. He needed to do this. This was for the sake of Kanto. Father or not, he was the leader of the Anti-Trainers, and therefore responsible for dealing with Team Rocket._

_Kaden entered the vent, with Mew watching from behind._

OoO

Floating contently on the uncharted island, the soft waves lapping around them, the Physic kitten and the large Charizard watched as Ellen crawled into the vent, taking one last, serious look at them before disappearing into her fate, releasing a shaking sob that echoed through the tunnel, and quickly regaining herself.

Mew smiled, and although it was good-hearted, it still resembled a macabre skeleton grin.

_Just like last time,_ he thought. _Just like last time_.

OoO

**End of Chapter**

Okay, I think I redeemed all the underappreciated Moms in the Pokémon games, because, you know, making Cinnabar Burgers just is not enough.

I am sorry if anyone is offended by the whole 'suicide thing', and if you are mad at me…please see top!

I don't know about you, the reader, but I'm sorry if this chapter in any way did not live up to the last chapter. I set the standard very high for myself, and there has been a flurry of activity in my life. This chapter was written in short burst, all while I had a dulling head cold. So, I'm sorry if this chapter is as muttled as I feel right now.

Sigh…did you know that the next one is the last chapter, save for the Epilogue? Well, it'll be a GREAT next chapter, I promise!

**REVIEW. REVIEW. REVIEW.** Please, Dave…**REVIEW**. Do you want me to sing a song, Dave? **REVIEW**. Dave, stop that. **REVIEW**.

Yeah…sigh…**_REVIEW_**.


	39. Casualties

I'm sorry it took me so long to update, due to mid-term exams and more stuff in that category.

**IF YOU AS THE READER ARE DISTURBED BY GORE, CURSING, AND SEXUAL REFERENCES…GO AWAY.**

Also, do not steal anything. This is part one of the true ending, this is not the climax.

OoO

Fiery Sapphire

Chapter 39: Casualties

If one had looked at Silph Co., one would have seen a cheery, progressive work place, fraught will intelligent workers and a clean environment.

If one had looked at Cerulean City, one would have seen a mass of torn, bloody bodies resting among the debris of a ruined city.

Of course, no one would think to look on a beach, in a vent, and under the Kanto Sea, would they? No...and yet, if they ignored this certain vent, they would miss our strange protagonist all together. So…shall we begin?

All things must begin.

The vent was very dark. Extremely dark; Ellen Adler could not see but an inch in front of her. The air channeling from the beach and the Headquarters was stale and dank, heavily humid. Ellen was traveling on her hands and knees, feeling her away along the cold metal. The only comfort for her was the three Pokémon that traveled behind her: Feolan, Kyoshi, and Phil, who all seemed equally disturbed. To be traveling under such pressure in such a large body of water was enough to make one die even before entering Team Rocket's Headquarters. And especially for Ellen— recently, her mother and friends were crushed under mounds of rocks, thanks to Giovanni and his Rhydon.

"This is _cool_," Phil's voice echoed through the vent, and there were sounds of giggling. No one dared to comment that if the vent broke, even _he_ would be lost in the debris, despite him being a Swampert. "Hey, Kyoshi, how much longer now?"

The Persian sighed, her lithe body smoothly walking through the vent. "This is the last time I'm telling you and Feolan this. Just because I'm Psychic doesn't mean that I have a good sense of direction…or time. But in estimation, I'd say another six minutes before we get there."

"And when we get into the headquarters…?" Feolan pressed.

Ellen murmured, "We try and stay alive…and I guess…somehow defeat the Rockets…but I'm not sure how…"

"We'll manage," Phil said cheerfully.

"I guess so…" Ellen continued crawling, her knees and hands damp from the humidity. Her face, on the other hand, was damp from tears. She opened her mouth to speak, but her head suddenly rammed into something quite hard, which send her reeling back and crashing into Feolan. There was a pause as the Mightyena grumbled crankily, and the Anti-Trainer tentatively reached forward, running her palm along cold, damp metal. "Guys! I think we found the door!" Testing her weight out, she pushed in furiously. The vent opened up with ease, and although it was relieving, a horrible stench ravaged Ellen's nostrils as she crawled through the opening, making sure no one was in the room. It was, ultimately, the smell of death, of decay.

When the whole group had filed into the room and saw what was in front of them, they screamed. The room was filled with rotting bodies, some so old that only taut, brown flesh lay tight against snapped bone, some newer and still holding the likeness of a human, flies clinging to it. There were men, women, children, Pokémon— some had lost their heads, some were reduced to a gelatinous, flesh-ridden mass. Ellen's eyes widened as she saw this; she staggered into the room, her mouth open in a silent scream.

The Anti-Trainer turned to face her horrified Pokémon. "I-I-I…I can't do this…this is so horrible…I'm scared. Oh shit, get me out of here."

Feolan whipped around and closed his claws around the vent opening, tugging furiously. It did not budge. He tried again, this time both tugging and blasting it with a dark wisp of energy, although that only shook it a bit. His breathing became faster and faster as he tried a third time, using whatever attacks he could— in vain. "It's not opening. Damit, it's NOT OPENING!"

Kyoshi pushed past Feolan, shushing him quietly. She relaxed her muscles and closed her eyes, bidding the vent covering to simply snap off. It did not budge. Even Phil and Ellen tried, but to no avail.

"We're gonna die," Ellen said quietly, wiping at her eyes with her sleeves. "We're gonna die."

"I'll try and contact Mew," Kyoshi suggested shakily, her long whiskers quivering with anxiety. She closed her eyes and entered the Psychic Kanto again, filled with a light, soothing sense of calm as the purple tint washed over the scene like a great, warm ocean. Yet it was different this time. In the Gym, everything seemed so…normal…the dead floated, the Psychic played. Now, there was neither a Psychic nor a ghost. It was so quiet and plain that the Persian feared Team Rocket had set up a kind of Dark barrier.

And yet, salvation came! The twisted, skeletal bodies resting around Kyoshi slowly curled in upon themselves, claw hands coiling into fist, the yellow, overgrown nail piecing the rotted flesh and driving through the hands until they could move no more. Rib cages split as the torsos crumpled like paper, heads (some of which were already bashed in or decapitated,) split open in the center, the forehead curling in at an unimaginable angle that would normally break it into pieces. As this strange deformation was occurring, the corpses seemed to slowly fade away and were replaced by _figures_. Not living humans or Pokémon, but simply ghosts of the past. There were Pokémon, men, women. There was a Noctowl hooting softly, seated by an oblivious Phil. A Poochena wagged its tail at Feolan and batted at his feet, the puppy's pink tongue lolling from its mouth in a morbidly cute way. Various people crowded around Ellen, staring at her or chatting quietly.

Kyoshi turned around to see a Meowth standing by her side, smiling thinly. The Persian felt slightly troubled, and gasped as she heard his voice. "_Hullo, Kyoshi_," Jefferson said calmly. "_Long time no see_."

"Why are _you_ here?" The Psychic hissed, fur bristling up on her back. She raised a paw to protect herself from a devastating thunderbolt or a flurry of Meowth Orbs, but she slowly dropped paw when she realized he was dead. Dead. No longer able to contact the living. "I thought your Tauros gored you in Silph Co."

"_You're right_." The evil Meowth nodded. He looked exactly like a normal Meowth would look, tawny fur, bright slanted eyes, a pert pink nose, and dainty front paws. He balanced on his two larger hind paws. "_Yep, I'm as dead as the other Meowths I slaughtered._" He spread his arms out and shrugged, as if to show the snapped bones and slashes when the bull had killed him. "_But I traveled over to the Headquarters. I like it much better here. These Deadies are friendly…if I don't tell them I'm part of Team Rocket." _Kyoshi grimaced in disgust, and her enemy looked back at the living Anti-Trainer._ "Oh, and I see Ellen is still alive. I'm surprised Giovanni hasn't gotten her yet_."

"That's because we're a strong group of friends," Kyoshi replied briskly, ignoring Jefferson's snickers. "Now, leave. I need to contact Mew and see if we can defeat people like _you_, Jefferson."

Jefferson crossed his arms defiantly and settled down in the air, smirking. "_Then I won't be leaving anytime soon, I'm sorry to say. Even if I'm dead, that doesn't mean I can't help Team Rocket a tad_. _Sometime, a Rocket is going to come down here and find you. You can't hide forever_. _Just like the Meowths back home. They hid in the forest, they climbed up trees and under rocks, but Tauros and I found them just the same. Speaking of which, have you gotten over your depression yet. I know you had some trouble after your family was gored by the Tauros, so I assumed_-"

Kyoshi swiped her paw through him gently, and Jefferson's ghostly form wavered a bit, breaking into wispy, white fragments and reforming again. The Meowth frowned. The Psychic trounced her paw again, claws sheathed, and scattered her enemy into small ectoplasmic particles, which fizzled out, having nothing to latch onto again. She could hear Jefferson's annoyed, faint grumblings as his being drifted off to another part of the Headquarters. She smiled slightly.

"Yes, Jefferson, I _have_ gotten over depression," she said to no one in particular, closing her eyes and beginning to concentrate on reaching Mew again. "I was over it the very moment it began. Now…" she once again reached a state of extreme calm and retreated to a place devoid of four senses, the only ones present being the sense of hearing and the sense of the Ghost/Psychic. There was darkness, although without sight, there _could_ be no darkness, and therefore the darkness was _Nothing_. Kyoshi's semi-trained Psychic mind merely created a representation of _Nothing_.

_Hello?_ she thought timidly, bracing herself for any number of interruptions from other Psychics or Team Rocket.

There was silence for perhaps a minute, when Kyoshi shrank back against the wall in fear as a cold, raspy voice echoed through her mind. The malice shone through, the voice was so drawn and brutal. It hissed, _Yyyyeeeessss_?

Her heart pounded. That voice was certainly not Mew! She had two choices: pull herself from the Psychic conversation and accept not connecting with the Legendary, or risk meeting an unpleasant Ghost or Psychic. Sighing mentally, the Persian thought, _May I ask who you are_?

Quiet, when suddenly a scream came so violent and deafening that her mind pained greatly, blood spouted from her nose and spilled onto her soft fur and her head rammed against the wall, conjuring a great, red welt on her head. The voice screamed, "_THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA IS THERE, BUM BUM, INSIDE YOU MIND_! The voice abruptly stopped shrieking and cackled hysterically in a voice quite familiar; Kyoshi could almost see the voice rolling on the floor, pounding its fists on the ground in delight.

_MEW!_ her mind screamed at him, wanting to induce the same pain onto him as he had her, although the kitten was much more skilled in Psychic mastery. _WHY DID YOU DO THAT?_

_I don't kknnnoooowww_… Mew drawled in the same, cold, rough voice he had used previously, breaking off to giggle. _God. It was too good to resist. Really. You're way too innocent to not prank. Hey, at least you didn't get VERY hurt_.

In reality, Kyoshi released a hiss of fury, her pupils dilating to cover the green eye completely. _My nose is bleeding, you almost tore out my mind, and I have a welt on the back of my head_! _I called for your help! Really…please…_

_Oh, FINE_. _God_. _But what do you want me to do_?

_Do you even know where we are_? _Can't you teleport here_? Kyoshi asked angrily.

Mew sneezed mentally. _No_. _I can only teleport to familiar places, and I've never been to where you guys are._

The Persian gawked. Mew, that _idiot_! _For your information, your little vent lead us into a room filled with rotting CADAVERS!_

Mew mumbled in through for a few moments before realizing a cry of realization and chuckling. _Hehe…now I remember…I've never been there, though. Heehee. Didn't mean to scare ya, anyway. I just though Ellen might like spending time with some other Anti-Trainers…even if they are dead!_ He cackled again. _What, is she freakin' out? Doesn't like seeing what Giovanni got done in the last twenty years_?

_Mew, she's TERRIFIED_! Kyoshi screamed. _You're not helping at all_! _You horrible, horrible—_

_SOR-REE_, the kitten scoffed in a deep voice. He paused for a moment before mumbling, _Actually, me and Charles aren't in the best shape right now…we're still flying up to a place to enter and_…Mew's mind suddenly jerked wildly. _HOLY SHIT! Kyoshi, gotta go._

Kyoshi called his name once or twice more and finally realized that he refused to contact her any longer. The Persian meowed in a low, frustrated voice as the souls of the dead Anti-Trainers and Pokémon disappeared, leaving the naked, body-strewn room devoid of any life except that of Ellen's group. The feline became aware that her friends were staring at her and shook her head sadly, pausing to touch her paw to the welt on the back of her head and send a great wave of relief through it, healing it quickly. "Mew just got cut off…he can't help us."

Everyone's eyes widened. Even the God of Kanto could not help them.

OoO

High above the Headquarters, Mew's low warbles of song reverberated around the area as he and Charles flew silently through the dense pine trees, intent on accessing the building. Charles had be terrified when the kitten had first begun belting out a song, but could do nothing to quiet him and eventually accepted that he would simply have to deal with the obnoxious God of Kanto.

"_Will you defeat them, your demons and all the non-believers, the plans that they have made_?!" Mew bellowed to the sky, forcing flocks of malnourished Pidgey to dive into the trees out of fear. The kitten did not seem to care that the Team Rocket Headquarters were only fifty feet away, and his macabre tune surely would alert the Rockets slinking inside of it.

"Mew, please! The Rockets will kill us both if you don't stop," Charles hissed furiously, dipping around the thick trunk of an evergreen tree. As he looked below, the Charizard realized the melancholy of the forest: emaciated birds huddled together on branches to avoid the cold, Poochena crowding around the mangled body of an unidentified Pokémon, flies buzzing around the rotting corpse…and did his eyes deceive him? Did he see a small Charmander wandering alone, scared and hungry? But Charmanders were not meant to live in forests! Charles was slightly disturbed by this. "Mew…"

"I guess you saw the Charmander too, huh?" Mew asked, his song cutting off abruptly. "_God_. If you're that much of a softie, than you're never gonna survive in the HQ. This forest isn't normal— it's where all the rejects go."

"Rejects?"

"Pokémon the Rockets caught or stole, and didn't like," Mew explained, clearing his throat noisily and coughing up phlegm. "Either they use them for experiments, or they throw them out here. Or they use 'em for both, like _that_ poor sap over there! _God_."

Charles looked to were Mew was pointing, and to his horror saw a creature (he could not tell which Pokémon it was) with a grotesque body composition of almost canine form, although it's growth had been stunted considerably and the front and back legs were blunt stubs. Instead of fur, there was a thick coating of cracked, jagged scales, a mottled gray color. No ears were present, nor was there a tail. The snout was short and thick, its mouth split into a disturbing, mucus-rimmed clown-grin, and the eyes were masses of congealed blood. The body was lying back against a tree, limp as death.

The dragon had stopped behind a tree abruptly. He was promptly was sick with disgust. As he wiped a trace of bile from his snout with the back of his claw, Mew sniggered. "At least I didn't turn out like that thing. _God_. I always wonder what kind of shitty experiment they went through. I mean, Giovanni organizes _all_ the experiments. It makes me think…its like, what was supposed to happen with _that_ thing down there? Better attacks, longer lifespan? _God_. Sometimes, I think Giovanni does some of the experiments just for fun, and we're lookin' at one of 'em."

"Stop," Charles began pleadingly, already beginning to feel sick again for the worry of his teammates, but he suddenly realized something strange. He averted his eyes from the fearful being to the Legendary, who stared back at him with a raised eyebrow. "How do you know so much about Team Rocket?"

Mew was silent for a moment, perplexity washed over his feline face before he burst into insane giggling. "_God_. The assholes captured me, remember? I was in their lab for at least a month. I saw all sorts of crazy shit there…and when I escaped, I hung around for a while, checkin' out stuff. I took my time; ya know…they couldn't catch me, anyway."

Still doubting the kitten's excuse, Charles waved off the subject until later. "So…you can lead me around in the HQ."

"If I feel like it." Mew yawned and reclined on the dragon's back.

"_What_!?"

"Ah, just kiddin'. _God_. Yeah, yeah, I know where to go. But it's yer job to survive…huh?" Mew sat up hastily and stared down into the forest, attracting Charles's attention. Near the unidentified creature was a rustling of bushes and shrubs, and a glimpse of orange showed itself. From behind the green emerged the Charmander they had seen earlier before, simply living and making her way through the forest. The lizard was terribly emaciated, and her green eyes and scales were dull. The older dragon watched first with confusion and curiosity as she passed by the creature, and then with horror as he saw, very slowly, the being…_turn its head_ at the Charmander and utter a low, gurgling noise, blood bubbling from its snout.

Two things happened simultaneously— the Charmander screamed shrilly and stumbled backwards as the form cried even louder and began to convulse violently. Charles could not watch the horrific scene any longer and took to the air again, ignoring how his wings smashed against branches and tore them apart, scratching his wings in the process. He swooped down, almost touching the ground and grabbed the Charmander's claw, ascending wildly through the trees, wincing as branches smacked his draconian face and wings. Even as he broke the surface of the sea of trees, he was still clutching the Charmander's hand tightly, and Mew's claws continued to dig into his back. Eventually the three relaxed, and Charles put the Charmander on his back. The being's cries ceased.

"You _freaking idiot_," Mew hissed acidly, flattening his grimy ears back against his head and digging his claws deeper into Charles's scales. The dragon winced. "Now you got _two_ mistakes down. One, did this crazy dive through some trees, and we could of gotten killed or somethin'…and now we some Charmander hangin' around with us! _God._"

For the first time, the shivering Charmander spoke in a soft, childlike voice. "Thuh-thank you…"

"Yeah, whatever. _God_," the kitten muttered, finally releasing his lethal grasp from Charles. He turned to the small lizard and greeted her with a loud, unruly belch, smirking as her pudgy snout wrinkled up from the kitten's disgusting breath. "I'm Mew, but my full title is Mew, God of Kanto, Ruler of All, Eater of Many, Hottest of Bachelors, and Coolest Shit of All Cool Shit. _God_. Just be glad all of you _Char-_ Pokémon have some freaky kinship, because if it wasn't for Charles, you'd be…dead…or somethin'."

"I'm Charles Thomas Raphael III," Charles explained, being to circle the morose building again. "What's your name? Do you know where your parents are? What _happened_ to you?"

"I'm Anna," the Charmander began, fumbling with her broken claws and squinting as the wind blew in her face. Anna stared at the back of the dragon's head with respect, awed that a Charmander would eventually become the heroic dragon she saw before her. "I don't know where my parents are, one day I was wandered away from my home in the mountains, and the Snorts got me. They brought me to the Attack Shack," she pointed a claw at the Headquarters, "and suddenly I was in the Prison, and there were all these White Coats buzzing around…except for the Guillotine…he always wore black…but that's another story. And then they took the flame off my tail…" she waggled her tail. To Charles's surprise, there indeed was no flame present, and yet she lived on. "But I think something else was supposed to happen, and it didn't, so they kicked me out into the Woods."

"The hell?" Charles gawked.

"It's Experiment Slang," Mew explained lazily, digging some earwax from his ear with a claw. Anna shivered. "I heard it a lot. _God_. A lot. Snorts are Grunts, the Attack Shack is the HQ, the Prison is the lab, the White Coats are the scientists, and the Guillotine is Giovanni."

"One command from him and…off goes your head!" Anna added fearfully, and added in a low whisper, "I've seen it happen."

"I'm sure you have." Charles sniffed. "But right now, we're just going to take you home, which would be…?"

Anna thought for a few moments before admitting she had no clue. "Charmanders are supposed to stay close to home, but one day I went too far. I was too young to know where to go back to."

"_God._ You look smart enough to survive on your own. Hey, let's just drop 'er back in the forest," Mew said. Anna released a small noise of fear and shook her head, and the Charizard chastised the kitten. "Well _fine then_. But just to let ya know, if you're gonna drop 'er off somewhere, you're leavin' all your teammates behind."

"Teammates?" the Charmander questioned, furrowing her brow. Her face suddenly split into a smile, displaying small, sharp teeth. "Wait; are you a trainer's Pokémon, Mr. Charles Thomas Raphael III? That's really impressive."

"I'm…well, you could say…and if you can keep secrets…"

"I can," Anna automatically answered.

Charles was startled by her sudden commitment of his species. "Uh…we're trying to destroy Team Rocket."

What Charles expected was a cry of delight or respect, but what came was utter silence, save for Mew retching up a particularly large and mucky hairball. Anna sat silently, unmoving, before rubbing her chin with her claw and mumbling gravely, "You know, I have two things to say to that. One…I don't know what to think of you…the Rockets brainwashed us into thinking they were superior to all other humans and Pokémon, but from natural instinct I know they're bad and you're good. And two…I don't think you can do it."

Mew frowned and licked his paw, averting his attention to the Headquarters. "You're forgetting about _moi_." He leaned further over Charles's side, evidently staring at something, and then he suddenly snapped up straight. "_God._ Kyoshi," he said simply, deadpan.

"Who?" Anna asked as a startled Charles looked back at Mew. The kitten had evidently drifted off into another world; his almond eyes were closed tightly, feline face relaxed. Occasionally his ears would flick. "Who's Kyoshi?" the lizard asked again, a bit more forcefully. "Why are you talking? How?"

"Questions later," Charles whispered rapidly. "We're trying to help our friends." He was glad he had saved one of his own species, but he realized that throwing Anna into a situation of dangerous kind would be stupid— he would not be saving, he would be killing. Charmanders were not _supposed_ to be engaged in life-threatening things.

'_And yourself_?' he thought. '_Who was the Charmander hiking through _ _Mt._ _Moon__, surrounded by Rockets? Who was the Charmander who faced Donovan and Donovan Jr._?'

He grumbled to himself as Anna continued to question, when the Charmander erupted with a high-pitched scream. Charles's head snapped around to see the problem, but his vision suddenly flashed as a powerful blow hit him in the stomach and sent him spiraling through the air. He plummeted wildly through the gray skies, Mew bellowing all curses known to Pokémon, Anna screaming hysterically. Flashes of the Headquarters and the dense forest snipped like a photo album while they tumbled. The cold wind whipped up around them as the dragon extended his wings like a parachute and regained control of his flight again, swooping upwards to view the assailant.

"What the hell was that?" Charles cried angrily, a dull, loud pain roaring in his chest and stomach. He checked for other serious wounds, but none were found.

Anna's face had paled to a pasty orange color. "Tha-that-"

"_Who_!?" Mew demanded, turning on the lizard. She yelped in fear as the kitten bared his brown-tinted teeth. "_Tell_ _us_!"

Charles snapped, "Mew! Stop it!"

"No fighting, children." A voice drifted from above and the three simultaneously looked up in horror to see…a large, stone gray pterodactyl hovering over them, her long snout curved into a jagged-toothed grin.

"You again!" the Charizard cried, gliding around and up to the evil Aerodactyl's height. Fury ignited inside of him. "Shouldn't you be with Giovanni?"

Aerodactyl's grin leveled, but she smirked at her enemy. Her wing beats continued it careful, measured strides. "Shouldn't you be dead? I thought I tore your wing off and let you drown. Oh well. Anyway…Giovanni is tending to more important matters...matters like…hunting."

"_Hunting_?" Mew asked skeptically, snorting with laughter. "_God_."

Although Charles was worried…the look in Aerodactyl's eyes…the mocking, malicious glint that was almost overt. "Where's Ellen?" the Charizard suddenly demanded, advancing forward. He took this moment to notice his surroundings: the only thing noticeable was the huge, craggily tower that spiraled up from the Headquarters.

Just as she had done before, the pterodactyl's speed was unsurpassed as she swooped on her daunting wings to Charles, observing him with crimson eyes. "I can't say Ellen is fine…because she isn't. Let's say that she'll be…with friends, soon." Her tail slithered up and brushed against his head crest. "You know, you're a pretty gorgeous Charizard. And you taste good, too." The dragon glared at her and bared his teeth, disgusted. Without warning, he reached up and slashed the tail away.

The evil Pokémon laughed playfully and flicked her tail, letting the stray drops of blood rain through the sky. She began to circle him slowly, Charles never breaking eye contact with her. "You are a _horrible_ Pokémon," he began furiously, growling and low. From behind, he could hear Anna whimpering.

Evidently, Aerodactyl heard it too, as she curiously picked up speed until she could have a clear view of his back. Her jaw dropped when she saw the Charmander. "You," she said shrilly, blinking at the cowering Anna. Her face changed to that of terrible anger. "_You_! I remember you."

"I'm sorry!" Anna whimpered, burrowing her face into Charles's scales. "I'm sorry!" Although he was curious, Charles's Pokémon instincts flared up, and he whipped around to face Aerodactyl, their eyes locked.

"You don't have anything to do with this," the dragon snapped, sending a wisp of flame shooting at his enemy.

Aerodactyl chuckled and swiped at the flame with her stony wing, letting the flare dissipate into nothing. A wind rustled against the dreary sky, and she settled herself in the air. "Oh, but I do. Anna was in the lab for a good while. She was a smart one, weren't you?" Paralyzed with fear, all Anna could do was nod slightly, her face a mask of terror. The pterodactyl's muzzle turned down in a fearful grimace. "A little _too_ smart."

Mew gave the Charmander a small, cold pat on the back, which somehow fueled her to retort, "It wasn't _my_ fault I was more powerfu-"

"SHUT UP, YOU WHELP!" Aerodactyl screamed, lunging forward, vicious claws extended. Charles immediately ducked and plummeted downwards, his wings taut against his back. Eyes narrowed to slits, the wind whistled in the dragon's ears as they dropped further…further…further…and suddenly the Charizard extended his wings and bucked upward, leaving Aerodactyl to scream shrilly and crash against the ground, spouting curses as her wings twisted painfully.

As the dragon's mind recovered from the dizzying change of direction, Mew leaned up against his head and shouted in his ear, "The window, ya ass! The _window_!" The kitten pointed upward with a paw, and far above, the tall, craggily tower came into view— built from cement and bones, with windows dotting its exterior. They could hear Aerodactyl croak blasphemy and take wild flight again, soaring for them with deadly speed. This was enough to motivate the three.

As the top window loomed closer and closer, the air dry and thin, Charles realized that he could not fit while flying. He wings would simply crush on impact and send him spiraling to his death. He tried to halt in some way, although it was going extremely fast…and pulling his wings back again, he barely made it through the window and crashed against the opposite wall, his nose spurting blood. There was a terrible pain in his head, and his wings were delivered a blow as his entire weight crushed against them. Anna's head connected with the wall forcefully, although all she acquired was a large, purple bruise on her scaly, orange head.

Meanwhile, Mew stared at the two reptiles from the window. He washed himself contently as he watched their groans of aggravation and snickered as Charles stood up and gawked at the kitten. "Oh yeah, forgot to tell you. _God_. I can fly on my own, so I just jumped off your back at the last second. Sorry about that." Finished with his bath, the feline lazily levitated over to the two. "Well, that's that. We're in."

Anna looked around wildly, tears forming in her eyes. "Where's Aerodactyl!?"

"You're fine," Charles said calmly, patting the Charmander on the head. She sniffed and whipped her nose with the back of her arm. Keeping his unblinking eyes on the window, he asked, "Now, can you tell us why Aerodactyl is so mad at you?"

"Yes." She managed a nod and dried the last of her tears with her flame-less tail. Anna sat down on the marble steps and sighed, leaning back against an ivory wall. "Well…when I was captured in the Prison, they did all sorts of weird tests on me. Like these." She held her tiny claws up, slick and deadly sharp. "Titanium. They de-clawed me and put titanium claws instead. And they gave me pills. Some made me tired, some made me hungry, most of them made me feel smarter…if that's possible. Anyway, Giovanni supervises most of the experiments, and he took interest in a few of us…he said he wanted a flying Pokémon. And Aerodactyl isn't the youngest Pokémon…" at the mention of this name, her eyes roved to the open window. Nothing. "So, Giovanni was going to replace her with one of us, and she wasn't happy. I was the first candidate. But…" Anna looked up at Charles.

The Charizard blinked and looked down at her. "What?"

"Giovanni is very particular about his image within Team Rocket," Anna confessed slowly.

"So?"

Anna finally threw her claws in the air, closing her eyes tightly. "Mr. Charles Thomas Raphael III, it was _your_ fault I was in that forest!"

"_WHAT_!?" Charles exploded wildly, raising his eyebrows in desperation. "This has nothing to do with me!"

"Oh yes it does!" the small lizard said, crossing her arms. Charles was about to retort, to his surprise saw that Anna's head had sunk a tad, her claws rubbing at her eyes.

Mew groaned and cleared his throat, spitting a glob of saliva out the window. "No more freaking crying…_God_."

"They were about to let me free and become a true Rocket Pokémon when—" she sighed, her breath trembling, "—when Giovanni suddenly decided he didn't want a Charmander…or a Chameleon…or a Charizard anymore, because someone else had the species…named _Ellen_." She cast him a cold eye. "I assume you know her."

Charles opened his mouth, frowned, and closed it again. He could not lie to his own kind. "Well…maybe…yes…"

"So they then…then they decided I wasn't any use except raw power…and thus, they tried to extract the life force from me…which was embodied as the flame on my tail… to preserve life longer. But it didn't work…I don't know how…and they just threw me out…and apparently Aerodactyl is still angry at me…"

Before the Charizard even had a change to answer, Mew's eyes popped open. "_Really_!?" he gasped with mock surprise as the kitten floated over to Anna and put a filthy arm around her tiny shoulders. "Ya know, that's what they basically did with me. I mean…_God_. Did a few experiments on me…opted to take some life outa me and use it…extracted a few of my powers…_God_. I'm just glad they didn't shove anything up my ass."

The Charmander blinked tears away and stared at Mew in disgusted awe. "You call yourself the God of Kanto? You're just a vulgar cat. You probably didn't even create Kanto. Your name is titular!"

"Okay, what if I said that while I was hanging around in space with all the Legendaries, maybe about five-thousand year ago…and I had this _really, really_ crazy-ass hairball stuck in my throat. So I coughed it up, it landed in water and floated, and it formed this funky shape and dried. _God_. And I called it Kanto. So _there_." Mew smirked.

"You're lying," Anna sniffed. The kitten sulked and yawned, and moments later a great, gray shadow appeared in the window and tacked Mew against the wall, echoing a terrifying screech throughout the tower.

Charles's and Anna's eyes widened as they saw Aerodactyl burst through the window and pin Mew to the wall with her sharp talons, cackling as the kitten squirmed and cursed angrily. "_Cats for snacks, lizards for lunch_!" she sang madly, barring her long fangs at Mew. The evil Pokémon turned to the two dragons, still grinning. Mew held his paw in front of him and fired two large spheres of Psychic energy, which the pterodactyl simply deflected with a blast of rocks, pelting the kitten. Mew yowled as bloody bruises formed on his body. "Bet you didn't expect _me_ back, right?" Aerodactyl questioned innocently, ripping her talon away from Mew and slamming it forward again, the claws digging into Mew's torso. "After I destroy this little shit here, I'm coming for _you_, Anna!"

Whatever shred of dignity Anna had left in her instantly evaporated, and the Charmander released a terrified scream and took off running, disappearing behind the curving wall. "ANNA!" Charles roared desperately, stumbling after her.

The God of Kanto was currently experiencing a great deal of discomfort and anger as Aerodactyl pinned him against the wall, deflecting most of his attacks. A zap of Psychic energy here, a fizzle of Dark Matter there…Mew feared that somehow, someway, a common Pokémon was stronger than he was. "_I am the God of Kanto_!" Mew roared furiously, brandishing not only his demonic, godlike voice but also his tiny claws and fearsome teeth. "_You shall PERISH under my divine wrath! I will devour you!_"

Aerodactyl snorted and hit Mew with her wing, blood trickling from his pert nose. "I'll believe that when I see it happen."

The Legendary suddenly reared up as much as he could and pulled back his head, striking at the Pokémon like a viper. Teeth bared, he bit down on Aerodactyl's jugular vein and suppressed giggles as his sharp teeth penetrated her tough, obsidian hide and sunk into the vein, puncturing it with a satisfying pop. The ancient Pokémon's body froze stiffly and she uttered a weak, trembling noise. "_ARGH_!" Aerodactyl screamed suddenly, sinking her talons into Mew's head and ripping him from her throat, throwing him across the room. Before hitting the wall, he quickly levitated in the air and smirked, simply brushing his paw against his wounds to heal them quickly and quietly. Aerodactyl gaped at him, crimson eyes wide open, mouth agape. Blood tricked down her throat at a rapid speed, but she did not seem to notice.

"Ha-ha," Mew taunted, hacking up a large, furry hairball and tossing it at the Pokémon, hitting her on the wing. "Ha-ha, you're gonna die soon, no matter what you do. _God_. This is better than eating Groudon."

Aerodactyl stared a Mew with a horrified awe and gasped. The pterodactyl then screamed with fear and without warning tore into flight and sped down the hallway, leaving Mew to stand, giggling.

And let us follow Aerodactyl in her path of flight— down the hallway's twisting, undulating tower, threw the room of Giovanni, past white tiles, over furniture— blood dripped from her throat, leaving a trail of the ghastly stuff on the white marble floor. Occasionally she would find that Mew was floating lazily behind her, and this fueled the Pokémon to fly even faster, if that was possible.

Through the many rooms Aerodactyl flew, her eyes darting back and forth. One could say that her mind had snapped to a degree. Just as she was rounding a corner, something large and orange appeared in her line of flight, and both collided with a thump. The two dragons tumbled across the hallway, annoyed shrieks and roars issuing from the cluster. Eventually they stopped at a wall, where both Aerodactyl and Charles realized their situation. The Charizard struck first, exhaling a great burst of twisting, flicking fire from his mouth and hitting his enemy squarely on the face, stumbling backwards as Aerodactyl shrieked in terror, thrashing her flaming muzzle about. The ancient Pokémon beat her agile wings wildly, fanning away the incensed blaze. Charles then lashed forward with a roar as Aerodactyl still cleared the fire away, his claws tearing across her stony torso.

Anna gasped a bit and held her stance behind a particularly large, Roman pillar at the entrance to Giovanni's Quarters— although she would have rather hid in a more concealed place, Aerodactyl had not seen her yet, and for the first time Charmander thanked the Boss for indulging in grandiose architecture such as the interior columns.

Overcoming the fire, Aerodactyl opened her jaws and materialized a large, glowing rock in her mouth. Charles's reflexes snapped jaggedly as he scrambled away from the Ancientpower attack, wincing as he heard the rock drive itself into the behind him. He spun around to face his rival and scowled, unsheathing his claws again. Aerodactyl smirked weakly, although it resembled more of a sorry smile than that of anger.

"It doesn't matter if _I_ die," she began, inching towards Charles. The Charizard's muscles tensed. "As much as I hate to say it, Boss doesn't need me to win. _Someone_ is going to find your Anti-Trainer, and give Giovanni…_her head on a silver platter_."

That was too much for him. Charles shot forward at her, and Aerodactyl gracefully dodged his rushed attack, parrying it with a swift slash to his back. Both attacks were fleeting, and both dragons recovered their stances in an instant. Suddenly and surprisingly, for the hallway was quite cramped for a dragon, the pterodactyl shot up from the ground and twisted backward through the air, her crazed flight touching down few near one of the pillars. The Charizard suddenly realized this, and roared, "_NO!_" He extended his wings, but they painfully smashed against the walls and set Charles to curse quietly, having to run forward.

Aerodactyl appeared in front of Anna as a despondent, gray shadow, eyes leering, muzzle set in a death's sharp grin. The Pokémon's overextended lower jaw was stained with blood, and her sharp, pointed tail whipped around dangerously. Such anger radiated from Aerodactyl, and she laughed hysterically, spraying blood and salvia onto the Charmander, who whimpered and lifted her arms across her face. "_Heehee_, hello, you little shit! You wouldn't mind if I settled some old scores, now would you?"

"Please…" Anna sniveled, wanting to simply disappear into the wall behind her. "_Please_…I haven't done anything to you…"

The fossil Pokémon's forehead creased with anger, she leaned her rapacious face closer to Anna's tear-stained, childlike one. "Yes you _did_," she hissed. "Every day…every damn day, I _know_ that I'm not living up to Giovanni's expectations. I'm practically nothing to him! DO YOU HEAR ME?_ NOTHING!_"

"I'm sorry, so sorry! Forgive—"

"It's to late now!"

Aerodactyl raised her deadly claw and brought it down upon Anna's head, just as Charles rounded the column, roaring in fury. Blood marred the little dragon's skull, trickling into her eyes with sadistic pleasure; the older dragon suddenly sent white-hot flames spiraling at Aerodactyl close-range. Through the flames, one could hear the evil Pokémon's crazed, suffering screams. Her flint scales began sizzling to a black, the devil's tail disintegrated, sparks rose from it and tore it off completely…,and yet, something was wrong. For some reason, Charles's ears slowly registered a different sound…much more terrifying than what was happening at the moment…and it was _laughing_.

Aerodactyl was _laughing_.

Anna was almost in terrified hysterics— she was curled up against the wall, sobbing, while screaming laughter and the sickening smell of burning flesh echoed throughout the infinite hallway. Charles reached his claw out to take her away from the scene, and the Charmander blinked one eye open. With youthful determination, she held onto his large claw tightly with her own. And then something very, _very_ bad happened.

With the flames dying down from Aerodactyl, (who surprisingly was still alive, but exceedingly grotesque,) the beast sunk her peeling, charred jaws into Charles's arm, serving such force onto the dragon that his arm snapped, a fresh wave of blood running into the pterodactyl's greedy mouth. Razing pain shot up the Charizard's thin arm, he screamed in anguish and ripped his limb from his rival's killing bite, looking in disgust and horror at his arm, which had transformed into a bloody mess; torn, red viscera tangled among the snapped, jagged bone, his orange scales mixed in the grisly soup. As the deformed Aerodactyl giggled madly and licked her teeth clean of gore, she examined her blackened frame, eyes roving over her destroyed wings, which were so brittle and burned that as she turned her body, they simply snapped off. She flexed her clawless talons forlornly.

"Well," she rasped in a mock pitiful tone, her vocal chords also destroyed, "my claws are gone…and I'll never be able to do a wing attack again…which means that there's only _one_ thing to do…"

The dragons were silent.

"_THIS_!" In horrible speed, Aerodactyl jerked around to Anna and suddenly lunged at her, maw open, curved fangs bared.

Anna shrieked, "MR. CHARLES THOMA—"

The Charmander was killed in a matter of mere seconds— and although they were relatively quick seconds, they were the most gruesome. Aerodactyl snapped down on Anna's mid-torso and yanked her head away, ripping the lizard in half. Cracking, snapping sounds reverberated in Charles's brain as Aerodactyl chewed the body slowly and erupted with cruel giggles of pleasure, obviously knowing that she had destroyed her challenger _and_ obtained a tasty meal in the process. The lower half of the torso still stood up, Anna's spine raised, stiff and coated with viscera, sticking grotesquely out of her entrails.

"Ohh, isn't that _disgusting_," Aerodactyl garbled, spewing bits of flesh as she spoke. "I just hope it doesn't happen to anyone else you know…because…well…_it could_."

"You…you…you…" Charles sputtered madly, looking from the body to Aerodactyl and back again. He blinked away tears, suddenly enraged. "YOU BITCH!" he roared furiously, springing forward. Claws unsheathed, teeth bared, wings splayed— he tore at her madly, wrath flowing through his veins. She had killed a Charmander, killed Anna! Charles had almost torn into her when something happened so suddenly that the Charizard had almost no time to stop in his flight. A _table_, yes a table, had merely levitated through the air and slammed down onto the pterodactyl face down, crushing her into the floor with several snaps and screams of aggravation.

The dragon landed on his backside and scrabbled backwards wildly, one of Aerodactyl's talons sticking out from under the table, limp and blistered. There was a slight popping sound, and Mew appeared in the air, a claw inserted in his nostril.

He nodded, satisfied with himself, and smirked haughtily. "That's cool shit," he declared, "Very cool shit."

"Mew…" Charles wheezed, claws shaking. He stared up at the Legendary with disbelief. "Aerodactyl…"

"Ate Anna and claimed that Giovanni would kill you all?" Mew finished lazily, smirking. "Yup, heard and saw it all. After I freaked Aerodactyl out I followed her for a little and went invisible…and I saw everything. _God_."

"Then…then why the hell didn't you help me!?" Charles sputtered madly, turning away from the Psychic kitten. He paused, surveying the surrounding through misty eyes: the hallway continued into the main part of the Headquarters, he assumed, where there would be a multitude of Grunts and somewhere, _Kyoshi_— and Ellen, Feolan, and Phil, of course. "Anna could have survived if you'd come in and intervened with the battle. If you'd of unleashed all your 'great legendary power'-"

"-which was extracted by Team Rocket," Mew finished again, this time much more impatiently. He frowned, almond eyes narrowing. "Yeah, I forgot to tell you. I'm not as powerful as you think. When I was where, Team Rocket did some pretty weird shit to me…all I can do now is teleport myself places…well, to places I know where to go, at least…and I can do that crazy-ass Dark Matter thing once in a while…and I can eat people and do some Psychic shit. Other than that, I'm flat out defenseless."

"But _still_," Charles protested furiously, whipping at his eyes with his claw. "If you helped even the slightest bit, Anna would still be alive…and if we all got out of this alive, and we never found her parents, I could have…well, you know…adopted her."

Mew frowned. "Real cute. _God_. Now, come on. You can't sit on your lazy ass all day and mope." He turned his back to Charles, tail whipping through the air. He was still for a few moments, staring intently ahead. Finally, he said, "I'm thinkin' that we go to the left, down the staircase, and we try and find Katie—"

"_Ellen_. It's Ellen."

"Whatever. Katie, Ellen, it's all the same. _God_. Anyway, we start looking for them…" The kitten began to slowly drift away though the cold air, and Charles hurried to catch up, breathing heavily from the previous battle. He did not even _want_ to look back at the half-body of Anna.

"Wait," the Charizard said, catching up with Mew. He frowned. '_I'm thinkin' that we go to the left, down the staircase, and we try and find Katie_.' Mew sounded incredibly precise…well, more precise than usual. How could he know so much? Plus, how could he know his way to the Headquarters in the first place? "How do you know so much about the HQ? And why did you know where the vent was? And…and…" his voice trailed off, but his gaze held so steadfast that Mew, God of Kanto, had to look away uncomfortably.

"Well…umm…erm…_mumblemumble_…expeeeerrrimentation?" The Legendary drawled slowly, eyes darting back and forth, face ridden with guilt. His lie was so thin and flimsy that even he himself saw through it, and sighed. "Uh…long story. But to make a long story short, I get these little bouts of kindness once in a while, and an Anti-Trainer happened to be involved in one of the past ones. So, I did some snoopin' and got them in here via the vent. _God_."

There was silence, and Charles suddenly smiled in relief. There was nothing to be worried about. Mew was a perfectly helpful kitten with a slight mean streak…or perhaps more than a streak. "Mew, I'm surprised. I…er…didn't think you were capable of…being so kind."

"I didn't either," he sniffed rather quickly, crossing his arms. His gaze flickered to Charles's warmhearted smile, flinching. The smile fell and was replaced with distrust. "Uh…it was a very important Anti-Trainer."

"_Mew_," the dragon warned, his eyes snapping open to show enraged shock. Perhaps he was overreacting. "Don't tell me that. Why in the hell are you telling me that? Mew!" Suddenly, Charles took a step forward, baring his incisors. "If you're lying…"

The kitten flinched, raising a paw over his eyes. When he realized Charles was simply threatening, he relaxed a bit and sighed slowly, shaking his feline head. "I'm not lying! _God_. Uh…I didn't even know who the hell he was. All I knew was that he was an Anti-Trainer, 'cuz the Noctowl he was flying on was takin' bout it. That was when I just ripped out Articuno's brain, and I saw him flyin' over head…and I felt bad for what I did to Mr. Cold-Ass back there, so I wanted to sorta…ya know…make it up in some way."

"To a random person?" Charles pressed, nostrils flared.

"He was the only dude in, like, sixteen miles! _God_!" Mew burst out, wringing his paws worriedly. His words were no longer obnoxious and jeering. In fact, he seemed incredibly sincere. "I couldn't say, 'oh, yeah. Sorry Articuno and Swellow. Won't happen again.' So I had found that vent before just wanderin' around, and he seemed pretty grim—"

Charles temper flared. "Do you know that Kaden has been missing for—"

Mew raised his non-existent eyebrow. "_Who_?"

"The Anti-Trainer you helped. Anyway, he's been missing for…well…_ages_! Great job, Mew, great job. You made Ellen an orphan. Both parents, two different times. You just ripped a father away from some teenager who can't tell 'everyone' from 'everyon.' For Mew— for Articuno's sake, we don't know if he's dead, or alive, or here, or anywhere in Kanto! Hell, Ellen's probably wondering if he's _here_!"

"Saur-ree," the kitten huffed angrily. Yet, his eyes held a light of guilt. "I…I didn't know what was gonna happen…and besides, how am I supposed to know where the hell Haden is? All I know is that he looked like a sorry asshole to me, so I decided to help him." Charles stared at him intently, and Mew returned it with a scowl.

They stood there for a few moments before the Legendary's expression crumbled into loss and he sunk his head. The Charizard stepped back a bit in shock, reading Mew's guilty face. _He knows what happened to Kaden_. "You know," Charles began weakly, but Mew interrupted him.

"No I don't. I have no freakin' clue where freakin' Clayton is."

"_Kaden_. And you _do_ know what happened."

"No I don't."

"Yes you _do_!" The dragon rounded on Mew furiously, slowly advancing on the retreating Legendary. He snarled menacingly, although he knew that he would never come close to harming him. "Tell me!" he growled.

"_NO_!" Charles stumbled back as Mew burst into a horrible roar, sending a wave of Psychic energy crashing through his mind. The kitten, claws unsheathed, teeth bared, leapt forward through the air and landed directly in front of the Charizard's snout. "Why am I even putting up with you? I could eat you if I wanted, but I'm bein' _nice_." His voice cooled. "I'm tryin' to help you guys. So just _shut the hell up_, will ya? _God_."

"But…if Ellen doesn't hear the truth, she's going to keep hoping for eternity. Please, tell me! Is it bad? Is it so bad you can't even say? Or is it so good that you just want to torment us?"

Mew did not answer, but simply allowed his fierce barrier to cease and sigh, turning away. He yelped as Charles tugged on his tail, and snatched it from his grasp, gnashing his teeth furiously. "STOP _ASKING_ ME! _GOD_!" Without warning, the kitten sped off down a staircase, leaving the Charizard to gasp and run bolt after him, weaving madly through staircases and hallways, the glimpse of light pink always disappearing and reappearing.

Somehow, Charles wished he had never been involved in this. He loved Ellen and his friends dearly, but few Charizards had gone through things this dangerous. He felt horrible for this, to feel like leaving one's friends behind to live safely. Of course, he suddenly brightened when he thought of something…if he wanted to; he could just fly out the window and be done with it. But that had never crossed his mind voluntarily. He _would_ stay with his friends, no matter what. _Don't worry, Ellen, I'll find out for you. I swear._

Somehow, he did not know if this was a good thing.

OoO

"I'm scared," Phil whispered automatically. Feolan shot him a dirty glare.

Ellen's eyes widened and she stepped over a corpse, standing quietly in the middle of the death-chamber. The Mightyena could almost _smell_ fear radiating from her. Her lips trembled. "This…this is okay. We can do this. We can figure a way out. No problem. Really, _really_ no problem…shit. Holy _shit_." Her voice rose to a hysteric wail. "DAMN!"

"Ellen, _be quiet_!" Kyoshi hissed, padding forward silently. "Please don't panic." But the Anti-Trainer still refused to pluck up some courage and began almost whimpering softly, pacing back and forth across the room. She sat down in a corner. She leaned back against a wall. She screamed mentally. Ellen was like a caged animal, simmering in her own fate. _STOP BEING A WUSS_, her mind screamed at her. _Do you want to survive and complete what your dad began_? _Yeah…_she answered. _Then stop it. Stop it right now_.

"Okay," Ellen said aloud.

Phil turned to comment on her strange behavior, but before he would even form the words, there came a sound from the hallway leading down. Echoing, staccato steps of shoes pounding against the ground, followed by dull, hollow sounds of more feet. There were no voices. There were no laughs or shouts as movie villains would do…simply cold, raw fear.

The Swampert whined anxiously and with morbid fear suddenly scrambled under a mound of gore and dead bodies, shivering under the grotesque, quavering mound of death. As he wretched slightly, the others, with horrible insight, realized that they too would have to hide under the bodies, lest they be killed. Kyoshi and Feolan scrambled under another pile.

Ellen was left standing in the middle of the room, and she quickly moved to a corner, staring at the thick mass of corpses, gnarled and rotting. Two filmed, gray blobs stared up at her from the tortured face of a cadaver, and she felt like vomiting. She could already imagine the body rising to life and reaching out toward her…the footsteps were closer. Without second thought, the girl heaved the body away from her and began making a small opening in pile. The moment there was enough room to fit, she gingerly yet swiftly crawled in and with certain revulsion piled the other bodies on top of her, nearly crying with fear and abhorrence. A thick stench of death crawled through her nostrils, smelling of spoiled meat and age. Through the concealment of the dead, there was a very small opening (which she later learned was the cartilage of a nostril,) in which she could see the room.

A few moments later, there was the sound of humming, and who of all people but Miror B. appeared, humming what could be described as a disco tune. His multicolored afro barely fit through the doorway, and his with chunky, golden platform shoes, his head almost collided with the entrance to the room. Ellen would have laughed aloud if not for the seething form of Giovanni following slowly behind, an apathetic expression on his face.

"Boss Man!" Miror B. began excitedly, lowering his huge, garish sunglasses and looking around the room. His face fell, and he plugged his nose from the stench. "But…this is where I heard those funky fresh noises, yo! And, awww, _bogue_! This place stinks!"

"Of course it _does_," Giovanni snarled listlessly, walking further into the room. He stopped at a point close to where Phil was hiding, and the Swampert was terrified. The Boss suddenly kicked a corpse with such force that it did not fly across the room, but simply crack in half with a dull snapping sound. He chuckled softly and turned away, walking back towards the hallway. "Well, I didn't see anything suspicious. Everything in this room…is dead. Very dead." Ellen felt the blood drain from her face. Did Giovanni just smirk? Did he know she was here? And yet…just as Miror B. was going to say something, the other man shot a look of loathing at him and ushered the disco fanatic away, leaving the Anti-Trainer literally shivering with fear.

It seems like hours as the footsteps faded away into nothing, and the room was quiet again. Another two minutes past before Feolan's hoarse voice whispered, "Is it clear?"

"I think," Ellen hissed loudly.

"If it _wasn't_ clear, we'd already be dead," Kyoshi said tiredly, leaping out of the pile of bodies. She landed on the floor and shivered as the corpses scattered around her. Feolan joined her, but Phil stayed in his corner, still a bit nervous.

Just as Ellen rose from behind the twisted corpse of a man with skin a shriveled black color and his ribcage exposed, whipping the morbid grime and viscera from her jeans shakily, she felt a warm, otherworldly presence near her shoulder. It was actually quite consoling, like a soft blanket or a small Meowth, and she turned around to see…a dirt-encrusted wall. The presence was gone.

The Anti-Trainer's mind whirled slightly as she mused over this strange occurrence. What had that been? Was it a Pokémon, invisible to the eye? Was it just a figment of her imagination, the reincarnation of her pent up terror and anger? Kyoshi peered at her strangely, cocking her head slightly, sensing something was amiss. "Oh," Ellen said in a low whisper, "I…well, there was this _thing_ by my shoulder, but it was invisible and sort of weird. It was like something was next to me. Kyoshi, can you maybe…try and find out what it is?"

The Persian's eyes widened considerably, and her mouth quavered. "I already know. I was thinking about how hard it was to contact Mew, and I assumed Team Rocket had channeled some barrier through their Headquarters. I finally got through to Mew, but now I realize that it was just luck…I guess traces of the barrier are palpable."

"Does that mean they know where we are?" Phil asked timidly, who was sitting on the floor, cradling a small, fleshless skeleton in his lap, occasionally running his fin against it gently. The others gawked at both his intelligent statement and the macabre scene he had painted. When he realized this, the Swampert's eyes turned filmed and murky as he petted the skeleton again, staring down at it. "It's…it's a Mudkip…and they killed it…they _killed_ it…"

"Phil," Kyoshi said gently, although there was a snap of urgency in her voice. She trotted forward. Her paws were filthy with grime, but she still rested a paw on Phil's fin comfortingly, moving his fin away from the skeleton. "If you're question right, than we can't stay here. We need to move if they're able to pinpoint our location. Come on, there's nothing we can do about the Mudkip."

Phil nodded in agreement and whipped the few stray tears from his face, standing up. "Then where do we go?" He gestured to the vent and the hallway. "The vent is locked up tight, and if we go through the hallway far enough, they'll find us!"

"We could bust a hole in the wall and see where in takes us," Feolan suggested.

Kyoshi sighed. "But we're underwater."

The Mightyena's ears drooped. "Damn. Well…maybe I can just go a little ways along the hallway and scout out." He turned to the hallway and tail between his legs, slowly crept forward. Disappearing behind the hallway entrance, Feolan's eyes adjusted to the bright fluorescent lighting and blank, cracked white walls. The path simply traveled on in a straight line, there were no right turns or sharp lefts…it was infinite. An involuntary whine escaped the wolf's furless muzzle, and he frowned. No way was he going to be scared by a fricking _hallway_!

He continued to advance very slowly, claws scratching against the hard floor. Every muscle was tight and poised with caution. _Keep calm_, he thought to himself repeatedly. _Keep calm. Keep calm. The rest depend of you._ _But what if some Rockets come? What are you going to do, try to hold them back_? _A Mightyena against an army? Face it, man. You're screwed either way_.

Feolan was so absorbed in his thought that he nearly ignored a slight opening in the wall. Immediately the wolf blinked and cocked his head, staring at the square-shaped opening…and then it hit him. _A doorway_! He almost gasped in delight, but quickly hushed. Using his strong paws to scratch at the hidden doorway until it cracked, he pushed open a crack large enough for him to crawl into. Surprisingly, his bony form crawled through with ease, and into utter darkness. Silence. The air was foul and humid, and the only glimpse of the room he could see was grimy and disgusting. His Dark-type eyes quickly found their way in the pitch black, and Feolan could see the faint outline of what looked like a prison-like room. No one would find them in there of all places! He smiled, remembering when his brothers and sisters would creep about Pewter City and hide in the abandoned buildings and empty stores that dotted the area. He had always been so good at hide-and-go-bite _and_ hide-and-go-seek. The only time he lost the latter was when the Team Rocket Grunt had captured him…and that was one game he wanted to forget. Of course, he had met Ellen and Charles there, the two still so naive. But that was in the past.

He trotted back to the room and told the others about it. They quickly followed him, Kyoshi taking one last glance at the room, her eyes roving over the skeletons— a Mudkip, a Poochena, a Breloom, a Noctowl, and a group of men and woman. All Anti-Trainers. Would she tell Ellen? Telling her could save her life…but could also destroy her spirit. Her mother and friends were dead, why make her even more upset?

Although Kyoshi did not want to admit this, she was slightly angry with Ellen. She too had lost her friends and _all_ family to Jefferson and his Tauros, and she did not sob and whine and drabble in her misery. She had not tried to kill herself— there may have been a few episodes of self-harm, but never purposely ending her life…the pain had been silent and bottled up inside her. As Elder Alden used to say, 'Silence heals all. No comforting words, no admirations can make up for what a good silence brings about.'

The silence twisting around them, though, was neither good nor helpful. It did not solve, it only complicated as the slightest scuff of shoe or scratch of paw would set the group in shivers. Darkness enveloped them as they entered the dark room, and Ellen silently closed the door behind her, slicing off the last thread of light. No sound, no life…nothing. The room was completely devoid of any sort of life, the air was thick and humid, yet a chill was still present.

"I can't see anything!" Phil whined fearfully, plopping onto the ground with a thump. "If I just sit here, nothing'll happen…maybe if we're quiet enough and we sit here long enough…they won't find us…_ever_."

"Frankly," Kyoshi said, busying herself with trying to construct some sort of Psychic energy that would shed light, "I would rather be killed by Team Rocket than live in this room my whole life."

"Kyoshi!" Ellen exclaimed angrily, just as a dull, purple glow dimly lit the area. She paused in mid-sentence, words stuck in her throat as the room was illuminated.

It was a prison. Not a particularly large one, yet still holding the same cold, dirty feel of a normal jail. There were cells separated by large walls made out of some kind of strong, metallic metal that was unidentifiable to the group (when in reality it was merely a mass of Steelix set in a boiler and melted, than poured into a mold). Tall, iron bars closed the cells in, and the damp, waterlogged floor was home to unimaginable filth— dirt, moss growing between cracks, feces, fungi, and dark, dried blood splashed onto the walls and floor like an artist's macabre painting.

"Ew," Phil said through a fin/paw that was covering his nose and mouth.

Feolan gagged when the scent entered his nostrils. "Wrong room, I guess?" he choked through wretches.

Ellen had not said anything for the time being, her eyebrows raised and her eyes widened in surprise. The Anti-Trainer opened her mouth to say something, but only a small, "Ah…" sound came. She cleared her throat and took a tentative step forward. "I wanna…just look around here for a little…"

Phil raised his non-existent eyebrow. "Why?"

The girl had already disappeared from the thin glow of light. There were sounds of stumbling as she called back, "Just because."

Kyoshi frowned into the purple light. "I wonder why she wants to…"

"Two guesses," Feolan said quietly. "We're in Team Rocket's Headquarters and it's a jail for holding enemies. Specifically, _Anti-Trainers_."

It registered. "Oh, Ellen…" The Persian sighed, shaking her head sadly. "She's just going to have to accept reality…"

"She's a human. Humans don't cope as well as we do." Feolan shook his head, looking down at a bloodstained area below him. "It's kind of pathetic." After a few seconds, he looked up. "I guess we should get her…"

Although at that very time, Ellen was on the other side of the jail, frantically stumbling in the darkness. If she squinted her eyes, she could faintly see the outlines of the prison cells and bars, but aside from that, she was blind. Her shaking hands clung to two bars, palms sweaty. The girl's head was pressed against the two bars, squinting with both concentration and desperation. She waited to see the outline of a broken figure shift into focus. After a grueling amount of seconds, nothing came. The cell was a bleak as it had begun, as was the future.

There was not a soul in the prison, no matter how many cells she checked.

Sent into a spiral of frustration, Ellen cursed in fury and kicked one of the bars, releasing a choked sob. "_DAMNIT_!" she screamed, faltering back from the cell. She lost her balance and with a yelp tumbled onto the floor, her head colliding with a grim, dark wall. There was no reason to rise again; Giovanni would simply find her here, rotting away in her own pathetic hope. It was a lost cause. Kaden was not there. Nor would he be in the other room, nor in the other room, nor in the _other_ room, nor in the—

"Ellen!" Kyoshi cried worriedly, the orb of purple light swiftly slinking closer. Almost immediately, the Persian's gaze met Ellen's, and once again, she sighed. Feolan and Phil followed suit, their paws and fins dragging through the filth miserably. "Ellen, you can't go on with this nonsense!" she exploded, upset. "_Please_ stop this! We're in one of the most dangerous places we'll ever be…and you _can't_ mope around like this!"

"Yeah," Feolan added. "Come on, let's…" His voice drifted off and silence flooded the prison; the Mightyena perked his ears up. Their hearts sunk as they realized what Feolan was hearing— _footsteps_. "Oh _shit_," he muttered, rubbing a paw against his forehead. He gagged when he realized the grime had spread across his clumps of fur.

"We're gonna DIE!" Phil yelped madly, clutching his head in his hands.

"Shut up!" Ellen hissed angrily, the footsteps roaming closer. The girl shuffled to her feet and backed up against the far wall of the prison, her fingertips digging into the wall. If they were silent and frozen, they could be unseen. But what if someone did indeed find them? Death would be certain. This in mind, Ellen shed the backpack from her back and rooted around in it. Feolan cast her a confused look, and his face wisped away as Kyoshi muffled the Psychic energy.

The Mightyena's voice radiated from the gloom. "Don't tell me you're…" he hesitated, "…thinking about cutting it off short, because I'm ready to friggin' knock you out if you are."

Ellen paused in her search and felt comforted that the normally insensible Feolan had brought up concern for her. She finally pulled out the knife from her backpack and slung the bag over her back again. "I'm just using it for defense. I dunno how to shoot a gun...all I can do is punch people, and that ain't enough."

"You're probably right," Kyoshi's voice advised hesitantly, hushing instantly when the footsteps came nearer. There was some quiet chatting outside the room, heightening the tension, before the door swung open and light filtered through the room, revealing the horrible prison in all its tomblike glory.

A figure appeared in the doorway, and a silent wail rose from Ellen's throat. _No…no…NO!_ Several other shadows appeared behind the figure. There was no doubt as to whom it was; the girl's grip on the knife tightened even further as Feolan, Kyoshi, and Phil slunk into offensive stances, hissing and growling and…gurgling. Would the Anti-Trainer be brave enough to kill someone, even? All the heroes she had heard of were good and right— none of them frightened enough to plunge a knife into someone. Of course, most of those heroes were in movies and video games…and books (at least in the few she read during her life.)

Ellen dearly hopped that the figures walking in would not see she and the Pokémon huddled in the corner, but it was inevitable as the door cast bright light onto her face. There was a pause from the figures in the door before a spiteful voice cried out, "_FIERY SAPPHIRE_! _FIERY SA- _Why do I even _call_ you that? PIG! _PIG_! STAND UP, YOU FILTHY BITCH! You're not even worthy of a name."

It did not take Giovanni's cruel words to force the girl to stand up, but despite violent hatred for the leader of Team Rocket, she was shaking madly as she concealed the knife behind herself. The Boss was not alone, though. Several Grunts appeared behind her, clad in their usual uniforms. They did not show as much hatred as Giovanni showed towards Ellen, their faces were either slightly screwed up in confusion or washed with a paradox of abhorrence. Before Ellen or the Pokémon had a chance to act, two other shadows appeared next to the Grunts: a huge cobra with a coat of royal purple scales and dark, glassy eyes, the snake at least fifteen feet long. Adorned on its hood was the face of death; the dark, empty eye sockets, the morbidly maudlin smile. Next to the Arbok came a smaller creature, although it was just as intimidating. It was some kind of round-bodied, dark purple specter with the piercing red eyes of a predator and a frozen grin so large and coated with needle-like teeth that it even made Feolan flinch to see the Gengar.

Giovanni advanced on Ellen. '_Just do it_,' she thought. _'Just take the knife out and stab him. It's not that hard. Do it. Stab him. Slice his head off. Freaking kill him. Now. Now. KILL—_'

Ellen's head collided with the wall as the Boss struck her across the face, her thoughts jumbling from the painful jolt immediately. The next events were merely a blur for the Anti-Trainer, a clutter of thoughts that somewhere, somehow, tied together in someway. Giovanni's expression was stone serious— there was no glare, just a thin line of compressed anger, even when Feolan leapt from his place, unleashing a mad snarl. There was a blur of motion as Arbok bared its needle-like fangs, rearing back, and lashing forward to tackle the Mightyena in mid-air, sending them both crashing into the wall.

Phil and Kyoshi stumbled back from the fearful battle of claws and fangs, staring at each other in horror. Once again, the Persian surrendered to the Psychic Kanto, hoping to contact Mew again.

And then she saw it.

The room of dead bodies they had stayed in before was empty and silent, save for the dead Anti-Trainers…but now, the prison she was standing in was filled with vile, disgusting creatures…_that were neither ghosts nor Psychics_— headless bodies with blood and viscera spattered across their necks, nameless piles of pulpy flesh ridden with burns, bones snapped out of place so that they tear out of limbs— and they were not moving. As opposed to the other _semi-living_ beings in the other room, these…corpses…were as dead as dead could come.

Although Kyoshi did not know this, there was a certain limit to communication with the afterlife. Some creatures were so mutilated and dead that their personality was gone. There was no life left whatsoever; they were merely a shell on most occasions. Occasionally, like the corpses in the other room, there would be just enough life to exist sub-consciously without speech.

Kyoshi shook herself out of the horrific shock she had just experienced and with all the force she could empower herself to horde, mentally screamed, '_MEW!!_'

No.

'_MEW!!_'

One.

'_MEW!!_'

Was.

'_MEW!! HELP!!'_

There.

Except for one voice.

The Persian's legs suddenly buckled, her nose splattered blood onto the ground, and her eyes began to flicker, almost rolling back into her skulls. This was not Mew's silly joke this time: this was a real, malicious presence that was screaming in her mental ear, very much _wanting_ to hurt her. If for one minute, she thought that the kitten's gag was wicked, than this one was far more dangerous.

There was the sputtering and cackling of a deranged presence before: '_KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL BLOOD KILL KILL KILL KILL I WANNA EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT LIFFFFFEEEEEEEEEE. HEY PERSIAN IM GONNA GONNA TEAR OUR YOUR LIFE FORCE AND SWALLOW IT WHOLE AND THEN KKKIIIILLLL YOUR BOYFRIEND THAT CHARIZARD YYEEEAAAAHHHH I CAN SEE WHAT YER THINKING YYYEEEAAAAHHHH BLOOD KILL KILL KILL KILL—_"

With a fearful cry, Kyoshi tore herself from the horrible place and opened her eyes to look straight into the eyes of Gengar— pools of blood. The Persian stumbled back against the wall, uttering a small gasp. The ghost snickered, its needle grin unfaltering. '_Like that_?' it asked in a muffled voice, its grin still clenched and unmoving as it said this.

"Get AWAY FROM ME!" The Persian narrowed her eyes and tossed her head, shooting a wispy, purple Psybeam at the Gengar. The Pokémon calmly gestured its arm at the beam, firing a much darker, more lethal form of the attack spiraling at Kyoshi. The beam hit with devastating accuracy, sending her slamming against the wall, one of her arm bones splitting on impact. She yowled with pain as she hit the ground, fighting to stand up and heal herself.

Another attack. And another. Now the beams were more concentrated, focusing on disabling her arms, legs, or even mind— once or twice, she felt a filthy, dark presence slip into her consciousness, which she quickly shook away. Bracing herself for another attack, she shot a quick glance across the prison, her lithe body quickly dodging another vicious, ghostly beam. All around her, noise and commotion. Arbok and Feolan were still fighting, Phil was sparring with a few of the Grunts, and Ellen…held a knife in her raised hand.

Ellen, on the other side of the room, had finally come to a consensus. If she were to kill, than it would not be in cold-blooded or meaningless. Stabbing Giovanni was merely for self-defense. Stabbing him _multiple_ times, though…was revenge. She did not care about the fine line between the two; her thoughts were merely centered on anger and hatred. If she had more time, perhaps she would have realized that not only did the journey make her into an Anti-Trainer, but it also made her become…callous, almost. She still held her personality, but there was a change. It did not take more than a moment to decide to kill Giovanni, when early on she would have fled the scene, leaving the knife wielding to Donovan.

Without a second consideration, Ellen, nerves and muscles taut, brought the knife from behind her and raised it in the air, plunging in into the Boss's chest.

This _would_ have happen if Giovanni's reflexes had not concurred Ellen's own, and the man had not reached out his hand to seize her thin wrist and grasp it painfully, his face ridden with fury. Teeth grit in an incensed expression, a dark glare fixed on the girl's defeated, wide-eyed stare, he seized her other arm to prevent her from moving. The knife was clutched in the Anti-Trainer's hand, lethal but useless.

"Even if you…_wanted_ to kill me, it would be impossible," Giovanni snarled through clenched teeth, nostrils flared. This struck Ellen like nothing before, and somehow, she was tempted to believe this statement. All the fights, all the battles, the Boss had never been close to death. Was there no way to kill him? Was there no way to…_win_? A lost cause?

But no— wait. Something changed Ellen's thoughts. Something small and normally unimportant (to a degree). Giovanni wore the collar of his suit and shirt high on his neck, but it would not hide the grotesque, withered, black splotch of a burn below his jaw. Charles had given him those burns, after the Gym Battle. After the Gym Battle, both Ellen and Giovanni had suffered wounds. That meant…the Boss was HURT. Thus, if he was HURT…he could be killed in someway. No one could be HURT and not be killed, it was theoretically impossible. Just like Russell, just like Fredia and Miguel and Samara and Marylyn— Giovanni could _die_.

"You can die." Her voice was shaky and small at first, but as her realization and excitement rose, her voice became fervent. "I can kill you. You got those burns—" the Boss suddenly reared back and slapped her across the face again, scowling as she uttered a cry of pain.

Giovanni tightened the grasp on Ellen's arm and wrist, shifting his weight. Normally, he would have been pleased that he was tormenting an Anti-Trainer, but Fiery Sapphire had gain entrance to the core of Team Rocket's life...and although the Boss did not like to admit it, there was the slight chance that she could overcome him if left unattended. Once she was under his power, though, everything would be much less stressful. Plenty of time for torture. "You _bitch_, you don't even know what you're talking about. And don't you have distorted scars littered on your back? And bruises and cuts? I may have been harmed _once_, but I will always be superior to you."

"You're wrong," Ellen spat, jerking her wrist forward slightly. Once again, the Boss tightened his grip. The girl's arm was as bone white, her hand becoming redder by the second.

"Oh really?" Giovanni taunted, his lips curling into a thin, snide smile. "How? How am I wrong?"

In a fleeting attempt, the girl flipped her wrist, trying to worm her way out of the Boss's grasp. The knife stabbed dangerously close to Giovanni's shoulder, and the man took this into consideration as he willingly twisted Ellen's wrist sharply, grinning as she screwed her face up in pain. She could take it no longer, and the knife flew from her hand and tumbled to the floor, wobbling to a halt at a wall. Realizing that there was no reason to protect himself further and because the Grunts were preoccupied with the Pokémon, Giovanni released Ellen's wrist and violently tossed her back, stalking towards the knife. Ellen's senses froze; the Boss would stab her with _her_ own knife— Donovan's knife, that is.

Despite Giovanni having most of the advantage over her, there was one thing she excelled at, one skill she could use that conquered Giovanni's own. And that was speed. A short burst of energy flooded through Ellen as her leg muscles tensed and she leapt forward, landing with a jolt. She ran by the dark form of Giovanni, nimbly darting through the small space between him and the wall, ramming him in the side with her elbow viciously. The knife was only a bit away, but Giovanni was, too. Ellen had no choice but to charge forward, her knees hitting the soiled ground painfully. Her hand scooped up the knife and Ellen clenched the knife tightly, gasping when she felt a malevolent presence behind her. Giovanni lunged at her, enraged, and swiped at her hair, grabbing a fistful of the grimy tendrils and yanking her head back. The girl's scalp screamed with pain, it was as if something was ripping the flesh from her bone. Her neck began aching painfully, seeming on the brink on snapping— and thus, she realized that Giovanni was attempting to snap her neck.

The Anti-Trainer's heart pounded furiously in her chest. If this continued, she would be dead. There would be no way to continue and defeat the Rockets; she would be only a corpse. A shell. Giovanni would succeed. _No_. Ellen slowly and slightly turned her neck, wincing when more pain ripped through her head and throat. Her eyes darted across the ground, looking from the blood splatters to the Boss's hand pressed against the floor, supporting his weight. Yes! There was still a chance! There was—

Without further thought and trying to manage the intense pain, Ellen suddenly twisted her body to the right and brandished her arm wildly through the air, coiling and twisting, locking onto her target. The knife plunged through the air swiftly and deftly, like a fish in water. When the blade first sunk into Giovanni's hand, the girl felt both satisfied and sickened to feel the dagger cutting through flesh and slicing against bone. Blood ruptured almost immediately, the tender veins slicing open with ease. Most of the cartilage snapped, leaving a broken opening for the blade to enter. Bile rose in Ellen's throat as she realized the knife had impaled the hand.

The Anti-Trainer's scalp was immediately relived of pain and her head snapped forward, seeing that the two remaining Grunts had stopped dead, not even blinking as Phil shot one in the face with a blast of mud-ridden water. Their eyes were fixed on Giovanni. Ellen turned her head around and faced her enemy— the Boss's face was ghostly white, the blood drained from his shocked, frozen expression. Dark eyes wide open; a silent scream boiling in his throat, his whole body was shaking.

Ellen was appalled that she had seen him Boss in so much pain…and now she knew that she _had_ believed him invincible. She found herself growing angry for some reason. "This is how you're wrong, you sonuvabitch," she spat acidly, face contorting into a glare. She jerked the knife a bit, and Giovanni winced, his eyes flickering to her. "Didn't you say somethin' about this in the Gym? The 'ultimate triumph'? Seein' your enemies write…writh…_writhe_ at your feet? Yeah, well…look who's in pain, now, bastard. You're nothin' but a weak bastard."

"I'll settle the score soon enough," Giovanni growled through clenched teeth, still shaking as Ellen jerked the knife once more. A fleeting through passed through her head: should she kill him? "Once I catch you unaware…I'll…_I will tear you apart with my own hands_."

"Yeah, if I don't chop both them off first." The Anti-Trainer stared at him, finally deciding that she would stab the Boss. There was no crime in killing a murderer…even if it did make one a murderer themselves. With a sharp tug, Ellen pulled the knife from Giovanni's hand, lying in a small pool of his own blood. She was about to plunge the knife into his chest when she realized that the Grunts were coming at her with infuriated energy— now they had a reason to hate her.

Having no other choice, she quickly stood up and stumbled out of the way, barely avoiding reeling into the giant Arbok that Feolan was currently defending himself from. The Mightyena looked up at Ellen pleadingly, going wide-eyed when he saw the blood covered knife. The two seemed to exchange silent messages: '_time to go_.' The wolf jumped away from the cobra, who uttered a hiss, baring its deadly fangs.

While avoiding the Grunts and Arbok, Ellen peered around the room for Kyoshi, and, with a certain surprise, found her already making for the door, yowling helplessly, "I can't take it! I can't— God, I want to _DIE_! Oh Mew, Mew help, _please_!" To their left, Gengar's grin twitched and spread into a larger grin, if that was even possible. It had done something horrible, most likely.

Ellen felt a Grunt's hand closing around her arm, and she quickly knocked it away and sprinted towards the door, Feolan and Phil following close behind as the Grunts screamed behind her, Giovanni's furious, weak growls and curses melding into the hellish noise. The group was out the prison in a mere set of seconds, Ellen slamming the door behind her. Her shoes skid against the linoleum and she crashed into a wall, pushing off of it and dissolving into a mad run after Kyoshi. Flashes of light passed them by as they ran through the hallway, fluorescent lights coming and going as they passed doorways and smaller hallways. Occasionally, they would see a Grunt meandering in one of the rooms, and prayed that the Rocket did not see them.

As the group was running, Ellen still clung onto Donovan's knife pathetically, almost as if it was an old stuffed toy or a blanket. She still could not comprehend what anger had washed over her in the prison when she chose to kill Giovanni, or try, at least. She had hated before, of course, with a burning, vicious feeling that allowed her to spurt various blasphemy. However, this hate— this desire to inflict pain upon— was something new. It was a deep, cold feeling. It needed not words or gestures, and it was silent, but it allowed a bout of great bloodlust. Had her experiences with fighting against Team Rocket changed her? Allowed her to become as ruthless as them? Allowed her to become as ruthless as Giovanni?

The number of unanswered questions in her life was accumulating.

Feolan tensed up as they entered a more populated area of the Headquarters, there were many more Grunts in the rooms, and the group would occasionally have to pause from a slight bump or step that signified the coming of a Rocket— but no one came. When they came to a turn in the hallway, the Mightyena stopped abruptly and craned his head around the turn a bit, instantly snapping back to look at his teammates.

"There's a room full of freaking Grunts," he hissed, his head low and red eyes bright against his white fur. "There's no way we can go any further unless we wanna get caught."

"But we can't go back," Phil whispered, tears already forming in his eyes. Feolan scoffed. "We're stuck. Now we're all gonna die here, and we won't ever see Charles and Mew again."

At the mention of these names, Kyoshi, who had been slouched in a corner, lifted her head up slightly. "We could hide," she said in a monotone.

"Where?" Phil asked.

"In one of the rooms." The Persian lolled her head in the other direction, her eyes flickering slightly. "That's empty."

There were nods from everyone, but Ellen cocked her head at Kyoshi. "Are you okay…?"

"Never mind that," Kyoshi said quickly, perking her ears up. "I can already hear the Rockets coming. Now, that room!" The group scrabbled to closed door with a window implanted into it, tugging on the doorknob furiously. The door opened, and the group piled in, Ellen trying to close the door quietly, but ultimately slamming it behind them. She fumbled for a lock, but there was none. All she could do was stay out of the window's ever-seeing eye and hope that the Rockets did not come in.

The room was small, cluttered with miscellaneous supplies; they had stumbled into a storage room. The Anti-Trainer slid back against white plaster wall, groaning. Her head pounded, and her hands were shaking. She laid the knife on the floor, wiping the blood from her fingers. Phil eyed the knife suspiciously, mud still dribbling down his chin. Gently, he touched his fin to her blood covered hand.

"Ellen…the knife…your hand…what did he do to you?"

The girl's hand strayed from Phil's touch, resting on her knee. "He didn't stab me. I stabbed him. Giovanni caught me in a corner…and I had a knife…but he caught my wrist, the knife fell, and when I grabbed it, he…" she gingerly touched the back of her head, wincing as she noticed tender bruises and small chunks of hair missing. "Tried to snap my neck, but I stabbed him in the hand, and we ran. But…he's really mad." Her voice was quiet, worried, her face knotted in a frown. Her eyes were frozen on the crimson blood running down her fingers.

"So…is he going to find us?" Phil asked quietly, turning to Kyoshi, who was slumped in a corner, holding her head in her paws. "Kyoshi? Kyoshi, are you okay?"

"Of course I'm not 'okay'," Kyoshi hissed, eyes blazing. She suddenly reverted to her lethargic personality. "Sorry. The Gengar I fought with has similar powers to Psychics, and it used them against me. So it entered my mind and…and it _hurt_. Not like Psychical hurt, but not like a headache. It's very painful, and I can't heal myself." Balancing on her back two paws, she placed her front paws on her head and rubbed her temples. "And now…Gengar is back, and it hurts. It hurts so much I need to…damnit!" Kyoshi suddenly whipped around and smashed her head against the wall, ignoring the cries of her teammates. The Psychical pain seemed to num Gengar's attack just the slightest bit, but there was a flicker as the ghost Pokémon felt the same jolt of Psychical pain ringing through its body, and it slipped quietly away from Kyoshi's mind. Blood pouring from her ear, the Persian sighed as Phil's eyes welled up with tears.

She gestured for him to come closer and rapped an arm around his shoulder, patting him on the arm. "I'm…s-so…scared…" he sputtered, as Ellen stared at him. Was there envy in her eyes? Envy of not having an older, loving friend or family member to comfort her in times of need?

"You're too old for this," the Persian reprimanded, removing her arm from Phil's shoulder. "Look, you're even taller than me, now, _and_ you're fully evolved. What would your parents say?"

Phil shrugged indifferently. "I guess they would be embarrassed…"

The girl looked miserable, curling her arms around her shins, head cradled between her knees. _Good job, sweetie. You stabbed Giovanni. Now, quickly, leave before he catches and kills you_. As Phil and Kyoshi were talking, Feolan sheepishly crept up to Ellen and sat by her side, blinking. Never before had she seen a more haggard Mightyena.

"Listen, I'm sorry you couldn't find your dad back there…" he began, testing every word to see how Ellen would react. No reaction. "Sometimes, I feel the same frickin' way you do. Crappy. Lonely. And I bet Kyoshi does, to. Phil hasn't been pushed around enough yet, and Charles hasn't had a close pal die…but still, we need to get through this, alright?"

The girl shifted slowly before answering. "But…if Giovanni find us…I can't fight back…you're tired, Kyoshi is hurt, and Phil will be outnumbered. And they'll take away my knife, and Giovanni will be the one with the advantage. Chances are, he's gonna kill me."

"Yeah, yeah…" Feolan paused; she could tell he was thinking extremely hard. In reality, he was actually an intelligent Pokémon; he simply chose to keep it hidden, lest others of his kind deem him 'even weirder'. "I know what yer saying…and…you're right, there's no way we can avoid being caught. But…I got an idea. Take the knife, and hide it in your shoe. That way, you're 'not armed' and since you can't really step on that foot to much, it just looks like you have a bad limp."

Before Ellen could answer, Kyoshi lamely stormed in, her ear still leaking blood. "Did I hear someone say that we're getting caught?"

"We're getting caught, no matter what we do," Feolan repeated, as Ellen wiggled off her ratty shoe and slipped the knife into it, barely fitting it in. She put her foot back in the shoe, testing her weight on it. "It just one shitload of time. Hey, Ellen, how's the shoe?"

"If I stand on it…" she paused and stood up, wincing. "It kinda hurts. But I think it'll be fine if I limp. But maybe there's another wa—"

"_Hello, you ugly little bitch_!" a muffled voice from above cried, and Ellen's head snapped up to see Giovanni leering through the glass, staring down at her with trembling, wide-eyed rage. The girl screamed and stumbled backwards, cursing in pain as she stepped down on the knife and drew a cut in her heel. The Boss raised one of his hands, wrapped up in medical tape and soaked with blood. He pounded it against the glass furiously, splattering blood everywhere. "I found you! I FOUND YOU, AND I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

The door swung open and slammed against the back wall, allowing Giovanni to saunter in with ease as a much larger group of Grunts followed behind him, toting along Arbok and Gengar. Instantly Feolan and Phil jumped in front of Ellen as Kyoshi scrabbled back from the Gengar, yowling pitifully as blood poured into her mouth. She gagged as Gengar easily flew through the wall and slowly floated towards her.

"Ellen!" Feolan called, only turning to her for a split second. "I changed my mind. We _need_ to fight!"

"I guess…" Phil mumbled.

The Anti-Trainer gasped, reaching forward as if to call them back. "Guys, _no_!"

Moments after she said this, Arbok slithered through the doorway, it's huge mass dwarfing Phil as it reared over the two, hissing, it's hood extending to reveal the Death's Head once again. Like a spring, Feolan paused and suddenly jumped through the air, claws extended. He caught the cobra on its hood, creating two streaks of blood running down the macabre skeleton grin. The Mightyena touched down on the ground just as the snake hissed, infuriated, and whipped around to strike at the wolf blindly.

The first strike, Feolan dodged by rolling out of the way, but as Arbok was sent into a frenzy of spastic striking, avoiding its attacks became much easier. So easy, in fact, that the wolf became quite careless. Just as he was leaping out of the way, there was a sharp pain in his arm as he felt something pierce it, tugging as he moved through the air. He landed on the ground with a jolt, collapsing onto his paws and feeling a wave of fatigue wash over him. Phil's eyes widened as the snake, satisfied, slithered away from Feolan and made for him…

Ellen, currently positioned on the floor, craned her neck to see a familiar white lump lying still on the floor. A strangled cry escaped her as her eyes roamed to the body of Phil, groaning tiredly. "FEOLAN! PHIL! N-no!" Instantly, the Grunts were upon her. Two grabbed her arms and violently brought her to a stand, jerking her to her feet. She winced, feeling the blade slice deeper into her heel. The Grunts, surrounding her like the plague, crowded around her to form some sort of confinement; in fact, now four Grunts were clutching her arms painfully.

There was some shuffling as the Grunts parted and made way for Giovanni, who walked up to Ellen, almost eye to eye. He smirked; one would not even know that he had been stabbed until they saw the wound. Without speaking, he held his blood-soaked, mangled hand in front of the Anti-Trainer's face for a few seconds, and flicked it, spattering drops of blood onto her face. She flinched. "Well, _Fiery Sapphire_," he spat, sweeping the hand from her vision and sending saliva into her eye. "Do you regret what you said to me in the prison now?"

The girl waved her arms pathetically, snarling at him. "You sonuvabitch, I'm not afraid of you!" Inwardly, she was sobbing pitifully. She was at Team Rocket's mercy, and there was nothing she could do about it. It was no use even fighting. She felt ashamed enough to create a strong façade. "You'll never be able to kill me. Even if you're real intimidating and that shit, you're all show. You're just some stuck-up, evil…" she remembered a strange word that her mother had used to describe the Boss. "…Fascist pig!"

A taunting chuckle escaped Giovanni's lips. "I'm surprised you even know what a 'fascist' is, considering your intelligence is completely naught. It's not your fault, though. You just had a bad set of parents." Ellen glared at him furiously and opened her mouth to say something, but the Boss drowned out her speech with a loud roar of, "SO! YOU WERE SAYING ABOUT HOW PATHETIC I AM!?" The Anti-Trainer paused in her cursing and nodded slightly, managing to gesture obscenely at him. Giovanni simply raised his foot and slammed it down upon her foot, coincidently the one with the knife, and grinned when Ellen shrieked with pain, warm blood soaking into her shoe. "Now…about how pathetic I am…"

The Boss sauntered away to the back of the room, pacing back and forth to examine the various things that lay there: several brooms, buckets of paint, a large paintbrush, and other various items. As he bent down to close his good hand on one of the brooms, a Grunt who was latched onto Ellen's arm shouted, "Boss! Can we strip her and see how she fairs off _then_?" There were shrieks of laughter as a Grunt tugged at the girl's shirt, on which she launched into various hisses and roars of Pokémon origin. And now…tears were indeed in her eyes as the swirl of noise reverberated around her.

As the Rockets calmed down, the Grunt asked the question again, this time a bit more directly, and Giovanni straightened up, broom in hand. Just as quickly as the question was asked, the answer was snapped, "Why would I want to lay my eyes on something that grotesque? I would vomit if I saw the dog."

The Grunt seemed surprised. "Oh…right. 'Course. Sorry for being so neg…neglant…negliga—"

"Negligent?" Giovanni guessed, and the Rocket bobbed their head rapidly. The Boss had turned the broom so that the blunt, wooden side was facing up, and he held it like a sword, almost, smiling at it nastily. His head suddenly snapped up, staring intently into the crowd of people. "Morgan." A female Grunt peeked from the crowd, nodding. "Find my son. I want to show him how to properly beat an Anti-Trainer."

"Sir," another Grunt said abruptly, "I believe Silvano is in Jhoto, stealing his first Pokémon…"

"Oh, of course. How could I forget, I was so proud of him. But, now…" Giovanni's gaze flickered from nostalgic to cruel and hateful as he fixed his dark eyes on Ellen, stepping forward and raising the broom handle. "Now, think how _pathetic_—" he spat at her once more. "—Giovanni of the Land is _now_!"

The Boss swung the stick forward, the handle connecting with Ellen's jaw with a loud, clear cracking noise. The Anti-Trainer was thrown backwards and jerked forward again by the Grunts, caught in a fearful mass of bodies. Several teeth dislodged from her gum, and she spat them out hurriedly, blood pouring down her chin. Her jaw was fraught with raw pain; it was as if it had fallen completely off. Tears were rapidly streaming from her eyes, a choked sob was uttered.

Giovanni was grinning and laughing through the entire time, reminding himself that he should make the best out of the torture, lest Fiery Sapphire die too soon. Once his enemy stared at him again, eyes almost insane, he responded with another swipe of the mop handle, as the various Grunts around Ellen commented and praised the Boss's incredible strength and accuracy. The broom sliced against her jaw again, busting her lip open. Again, the pain raced through Ellen's mind. _Bam_. The crack of the stick again her bone. _Crack_. Her wails of agony. _No_. Giovanni's cruel laughter. _No. NO._

NO.

Just as the handle descended again, Ellen shook her head furiously, spilling blood on the Grunt's shoulders. Bracing herself for another hit but feeling nothing, the Anti-Trainer tentatively opened her eyes to see her rival smirking at her arrogantly. "Enough? Have you finally realized that _I_ will always best you?"

She nodded, sobbing.

"I want you to say it," Giovanni hissed scathingly, holding the broom up. "Say it, you bitch, or I'll hit you again."

Ellen's breath trembled as she tested out her jaw, moving it back and forth. There was so much pain…small stuttering noises issued from her mouth as she tried to vein to form the words, blood streaming from her lips. "Yuh…yuh…yuhhooo…ill…'ways…buh-est…me. Yuhoo wuh…will uhlways best me…"

"Hmm, fair enough. For once you speak the truth." Giovanni turned away, tossing the broom aside as a relieved sigh escaped the girl. From the side, she saw a Grunt carrying something under their arms, which turned out to be the limp figures of Phil and Feolan. Following close behind was Gengar, deliberate in its movements. In one claws was some wispy, purple material, in the other was the paw of Kyoshi, her limp, feline body dragged along the ground soundlessly.

The Anti-Trainer's lips quavered as she was tempted the call the names of her Pokémon. They could not be dead. They…they just could not. They were all so alive; it was not possible for them to die. "Meh P-p-p-okémon…are 'hey uhlive?"

"Good question," Giovanni said, striding towards her again. The Grunts held their breath, hoping for another torture, but all the Boss did was swipe a bit of blood for Ellen's jaw with his finger, staring at it intently before looking up at his enemy. "Personally, I always know someone is alive…if they bleed. So, let us see if the Pokémon bleed or not, and then we'll discover if they _were_ alive." He picked up the broom handle again, hands behind his back, staring at the Pokémon.

"Nuh…no!" the girl yelled shrilly, fighting to break away from the Grunts, but all that did was force more to crowd around her. "No! No! Get 'way frum tem, you sick b-b-b-basstard! I'm gonnuh kill you!"

Giovanni whipped around, the broom handle brushing against her face. She winced as he stalked forward, his cruel gaze burning into her. "You say that repeatedly. 'I'm going to kill you'. Have you not noticed that _you're _the one at _my_ mercy?" he spat, face slowly contorting into anger. He held his injured hand up. "Of course, you caught me unawares, as did Red, and Crystal, and Fredia, and Kaden— and even Gold, for hell's sake. But that's not the _point_. The point is…the point is…well, you'll learn your lesson soon enough. Just be glad you have a bit more time to live. My gun and Rhydon are in another room, and this broom—" he tossed it aside, "—did not do as much as I had hoped. Now, Grunts."

"Yes/Huh/What/Hmm, Sir/Boss/Leader?" There was a variety of mingling answers.

"Allow the pig to recover a bit as we're walking; I can't have her die in the middle of a torture."

"Yes/Of course/Anything/Right/Good, Sir/Boss/Leader," they garbled, slowly beginning to walk, swaying like a body of water. They left the storeroom quickly, Giovanni leading them through the dank hallways and huge rooms.

All though the time they walked, Ellen's limp became pained and slow, the girl reverting to dragging her lame foot along and merely hobbling on one foot. The knife hidden in her shoe continually pieced her heel, her shoe becoming wet and red with blood. There was the small hope that Team Rocket would not look down upon her shoe and see the blood, although Feolan and Kyoshi could see it, as their worried eyes widened— well, at least Feolan's eyes widened. The Persian was technically in a dead state, as Gengar had his ghostly claw positioned over her limp body, forcing it to stride along like a puppet. In the other hand was the wispy, purple material of Kyoshi's life force, and the ghost would pause to partake in consuming a bit of the material.

Ellen's gaze flicked over to the Gengar, and her eyes widened. "K-k-kyoshi! Nuho!" she cried, watching as the ghost snickered. Instantly, a sharp kick was executed to the back of her shin that sent her reeling forward, only to find herself pulled back by the Grunts. Giovanni's low chuckle sounded behind her, and it was obvious that he was the one who had kicked her.

"This is the price you pay." The Boss's voice seemed to echo through the girl's head. "This is the price you pay for acting against such a powerful nation of conquerors. You could have lived a life free of this— but you allowed yourself to be drawn into the battle." His voice was slow, hissing, and so eerie that Ellen shivered. Perhaps anticipating a kill. "And because of your choice, I'll forever have a child's blood on my hands…that I took pleasure in killing."

From Giovanni, a lapse of silence came about that was fraught with loathing and satisfaction. During this time, Ellen fought to create a rebuttal for this last comment— something that was not dangerous, but still held the chance of rescue. "B-but…" she whispered fearfully, swallowing, "If yeh kill me…Fredia won't ever luh-ve you." There. A sickening thought, but so very truthful…and safe.

She was wrong.

It was obvious that several Grunts had not heard of the latest gossip, and they shuffled apprehensively, wondering who and what the statement had to do with. Face set in soundless contempt, Giovanni placed his hand on Ellen's shoulder so lethally that pain shot through her arm, and he brought his mouth to the Anti-Trainer's ear and hissed, "How sad it is that you forgot your mother is _dead_. Remember? She is buried under a pile of rubble in Cerulean City— which no longer exists. And by the way, screwing Fredia isn't any goal of mine…_killing_ you, on the other hand, is."

Ellen gasped; she could not conceal her disbelief. How could she have forgotten about her own mother? The Boss mumbled a curse in her ear before releasing his death grasp from her shoulder and resuming his original stance. "So…so…" her voice shook, blood still dripping from her mouth. "Am-muh-muh I some type of…_orphan_?"

Several Grunts snickered at the girl's stupidity, but Giovanni was still silent. There were several moments before he shrugged and said, "No. You wouldn't be an orphan if…per say, your father was still alive."

"What?" the girl asked, her voice rising. Her breaths were short and fraught with tension, and even though the back of her shoe was crimson with blood and hallways passed them by, she felt nothing but…fear? Confusion? Anger? Sadness? If there was a word for all four, that what she was. "What are you talkin' about? Is…is he uh-live?"

"That would be ruining the surprise, now wouldn't it?" Giovanni asked.

Incensed, Ellen tugged her arms violently and staggered to escape the Grunts, but the bulk was much stronger than she was. "God-d-damnit, Giovanni, _I HATE YOU_! TELL ME WUH-ERE MY DAD IS!"

The Boss rounded to the front of the small group and glared at her, instantly subduing Ellen. "_Would you like me to rip your tongue out first, you disgusting little bitch_?" he snarled viciously, becoming even more livid when the girl chose to match his furious stare in one of her own, although it was filled with doubt. "_Would you like me to tear off your disgusting head_? _Would you like me to gouge those damned eyes of yours_? _Would you like me to tear your hand off? WELL_?" His voice calmed considerably when Ellen finally surrendered, but the sound was still spiked with hate. "I try and sweeten the deal of death, and you do nothing but allow your dim-witted mind to control your actions. It's pathetic. Now, would you like to tell you the truth?"

Ellen paused and weighed her options. It is almost certain that Giovanni was testing another sadistic lie on her. The Rayquaza Document had been false, so why would she even care to believe him? And yet…she supposed there was no harm in hearing what he had to say, even if it was tainted and cruel. She nodded.

"If you insist…" the Boss paused for a few seconds. "Kaden came here to destroy Team Rocket without his teammates— simply a gun and his two Pokémon. Of course, he was much too pathetic to deal with the multitude of Grunts and myself…and we captured the weak bastard. I had two choices. I could kill him…" he smirked, and Ellen's heart sank. "Or I could imprison him and therefore never cut an end to his suffering. Thus, Kaden is here."

The girl wanted to accuse him of lying, but she was not sure that he _was_ lying. It was perfectly true; Giovanni was wicked enough to think of torture such as that. Plus, she was already at his mercy; there was no need for trickery. "So…I get teh see him?" '_After eleven years of life without a father, would he simply appear again, the exact way he had been before the disappearance_? Chances are he would not. There would be a difference, and a bad one at that.

"And then you die," the Boss finished. "Once I find my gun, I'll shoot you. Perhaps in front of Kaden, perhaps not. Whatever pleases me more. Do we have an agreement? Either way, you're going to die with him in sight."

'_Do we have an agreement_?' the question was infinite. '_Do we have an agreement_? _The question is, Ellen, do you have any sanity left? Well, I'll be staying here for a while…until you die, at least. The voice in your head will keep you company. Even when the flesh is being peeled from your bones and your entrails are removed and burned in front of your very eyes, I'm insanity and I'll talk you through it. Especially when you see Kaden again— even if he's half-dead, I'll be here. And then…when he finally recognizes you…BAM! Put a gun against her head; pull the trigger, now she's dead…_'

The Anti-Trainer's mind flicked back from reverie. That voice…she paused…was _insanity_. This was too much to bear, and she was slowly going insane. For Giovanni to kill her in front of her own father was pure cruelty. For Giovanni not to let her see Kaden one last time was also cruel. But…either choice would leave her no time to even think about escaping…or find Charles and Mew, for that matter! Either way, she had agreed to it, and the scenario would carry out. And she would be dead. There was no hope left, there was nothing to cling onto or hope for in the future, there were no new badges to find or new places to go to— it was purely a one-way path.

The Grunts continued walking, and Ellen continued limping. Phil continued shedding silent tears, Feolan continued worrying, and Kyoshi's life force continued to be slowly tasted. Mew continued smirking, Charles continued searching, Aerodactyl continued healing, and Giovanni continued winning. They would all meet in time, and although this time was short and fraught with worry and fear, it would seem like an eternity as the story dwindles to a brutal close. And, after all…the story of Fiery Sapphire is almost through— there are more questions to be answered, more things to overcome, and one more battle to be fought.

All things must end.

OoO

OMG THE CLIMAX IS NEXT OMG LOLOL.

Right. In other words, read and review for three more chapters (This One, The Climax, and the Epilogue,) and I just might become your best friend.

Thanks for all the reviews, guys, you wouldn't believe how happy I am. Special thanks to LuigiGirl22 and Mog Anarchy for review every chapter, even though they _were_ a bit long…heehee…I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you'll read and review.

P.S- I know this may be horrific advertising for a movie, but the Spanish movie _Pan's Labyrinth_ which I saw just after writing this, is amazing. It's officially Flameboo's Favorite Movie. The scenes are fantastic, as are the characters and scenarios. It's rated R, though, for graphic violence and cursing, and it's in subtitles, but I still fully recommend seeing it.

READ AND REVIEW, S'IL VOUS PLAIT.


	40. So It Ends

**Warning: If you as the reader are miffed by severe cursing, severe violence/gore, and minor sexual themes, please…take your sorry bum away from here.**

I own Ellen and mostly all my human characters besides Giovanni, Miror B, Brendan, the Gym leaders, and various others. I don't own Pokémon, but I own the personalities of Charles, Feolan, Kyoshi, etcetera. I also own the prospects of Psychic Kanto, _Nothing_, Anti-Trainers, and The Voice.

Enjoy!

OoO

Fiery Sapphire

Ch. 40: So It Ends

Fiery Sapphire was useless.

This is what Ellen Adler, Fiery Sapphire, thought to herself as the slow moving body of Grunts roughly pushed her on a journey with no purpose…no purpose except misery, that is. Was the journey she had gone on with her Pokémon, collecting badges, fighting Rockets, hopelessly continuing on a never-ending path, meaningless? The Rayquaza Document had been fake…and even if the legendary beast did exist somewhere, the chance that he would come and help Ellen was nil. Legendary creatures did not have time for trivial matters such as humans, the girl guessed. Mew was only thrown into the conflict because he was forced to.

Yet, _her_ Pokémon, _her _friends, enveloped themselves on the dangerous journey willingly, each facing the situation with different expressions, but with equal courage: Charles with an air of a supreme knowledge for justice, Feolan with a guarded, tough exterior, Kyoshi with her bottled anger for Jefferson and his Tauros, and Phil with his hopes of protection from the outside world. It was not until that moment that Ellen realized how loyal the Pokémon had been. Never had a thought of escape or treachery crossed their minds, while the girl had once thought of even committing suicide. Her Pokémon loved her dearly, just as her family had.

Her family _had_ loved her, before…before Giovanni. In essence, the Boss of Team Rocket, Giovanni of the Land, had completely torn her family apart. Starting with her father, her mother, and then…_her_. How ironic it was that the Boss's kills included a twisted desire of love and lust, sandwiched between two objects of hate—and Ellen feared that Giovanni's hate for her grew stronger with every moment, perhaps surpassing the hate for Kaden. No. That would never be true. Giovanni was so full of revulsion for Kaden that Ellen could never become the criminal's 'true enemy'. After all, and although the crazed Anti-Trainer did not like to think about the topic, her father had mucked up Giovanni's life quite a bit: Kaden was a thorn in the Boss's side constantly, he recruited people to fight against him, Fredia loved Kaden, the man killed his followers, and he pushed back the advancement of Team Rocket for years. One could guess why there was such odium radiating from the Boss. The Boss—the murdering, scathing, bloodthirsty criminal…

…who was allowing Ellen to see her father one last time before she was killed. How long had it been that she had not seen him? Twelve years? Twelve years was a very long time for a girl such as Ellen. What would she say to him? To be in a prison so long was unfathomable, there had been so much missed and accused in that time that Fiery Sapphire felt the deep wash of guilt flooding through her. She so truthfully wanted to deny the fact that both her and her mother believed he had left them for only selfish reasons…but they had been foolish enough to be drawn to the safe accusation, and paid the price for it.

And suddenly, Ellen knew what she wanted to say to her father.

Two wonderful, pleading words that bound and fixed so many things: _I'm sorry_. She would be sorry for everything: sorry for imagining him to be selfish, sorry for losing the battle against Team Rocket, sorry for how much effort had been foolishly wasted. Perhaps if those two words, _I'm sorry_, were uttered enough, Kaden would feel the slightest bit of pride for his daughter. He did not have to be full of overwhelming joy—just the knowledge that her father still had a bit of his mind and memory intact.

In fact, she hoped that _she_ still had her memory intact. There were only tidbits that she remembered about her father, and yet they had a lasting impact upon her due to his absence. It was as if certain things had been tattooed in her mind: certain mannerisms, certain personality traits, certain facial expressions, and certain speech. She could remember a certain saying Kaden quoted quite frequently, which was a surprise as he was quite an incoherent speaker. How strange the quote had seemed to her, and yet how very fitting in was now! Long before she had known Kaden was an Anti-Trainer, or was involved in dangerous businesses, the message seemed so whimsical and odd: '_Older men declare war, but it's the young that fight and die_.'

'_The young fight and die. The young fight and die. Young fight and die. Fight and die._' Strangely enough, the state of Ellen's mind enabled the quote to be soothing, in a way, if hummed quietly to oneself in a small tune. She became so engrossed in mentally repeating the singsong '_Fight and die_' to herself that an involuntary hum escaped her lips, the hum trembling due to the pain in her jaw.

In the moment of humming, Ellen's spirits rose greatly as the insane, delusional pleasure of making some type of noise coursed through her veins. When the girl was calmed, or as calm as the scenario would let her be, there came a sharp pierce of fear as she felt a presence come near her. Involuntarily she flinched, the hum cutting off abruptly. Despite her eyes being closed in fear, it was common sense to know who had disrupted her possibly annoying humming. Finally, having no other excuse to keep her eyes shut, Ellen found herself staring into the face of Giovanni, such ferocity in his eyes.

How strange and different the enemies appeared: Ellen, with ghostly, break characteristics. Giovanni, with sharp, apparent features. Surely one always overpowered the other, and the reader can guess which one, but occasionally the weaker would gather enough courage to defy—and one of those rare occasions happened to be now, moments after Giovanni growled the command of, "Stop humming. If you think you can communicate with your Pokémon, think again. The Persian is unconscious, and I can render the others unconscious as well. And if that does not suit you, I will _kill_ a certain man even before you set your eyes upon him."

The girl stared at him despondently, half tempted to spit blood at his face. Surely if she did that, though, she would never see Kaden and be objected to a slow, raw death. There was only one type of defiance left, and with deliberate slowness, Ellen allowed the last few moments of her humming to drag on far longer then Giovanni would have wanted. Eventually, she was subdued as the Boss shot her a seething glare.

It was then that Ellen suddenly realized that she had no idea how long they had been walking, nor did she know where the Rockets were leading her. It seemed that every hallway, every room was kin to another, intent on confusing her to no end. With a slight twinge of fear, she asked Giovanni almost inaudibly, "Wuh-where are we going?"

Just as swiftly as he appeared, the Boss slunk away from the girl's view, leaving her to gape foolishly at thin air, mind still dulled with dread from his past comment. While she was not fully sure of this, Ellen felt as though Giovanni had left—simply walked away from the group.

At least two minutes past before the girl felt sure that her enemy had returned, the heavy scene of cologne wafted through the hallway/room (wherever they were going). There was a moment of silence before Ellen was drawn from her reverie, blinking slightly. "Where are we going?" she asked again, but this time it was slightly forceful, demanding. Anxiety tore her mind as she gnawed at her lip, crumbling off pieces of dried blood.

'_Where are we going? Where are we going? Ellen doesn't know._ _I don't know_,' a honeyed, smooth voice suddenly crooned through her mind, and with horror, Ellen realized that it was insanity. The Voice of Insanity. '_Yes, I'm back. And, Ellen, you should be happy that I'm here with you. Appreciate me, would you. After all, I'm much smarter than you are…_'

"Shut up," Ellen muttered to herself, feeling the tendrils of a headache emerge. Both her head and foot now pounded with pain, destroying any hope of thinking straight. "Shut up. Get away from me."

The Voice sounded hurt. '_Now, don't say that. I'm just telling the truth, that's all. There's nothing wrong with the truth Ellen. Fight and die, Ellen. Just remember that. You're going to die…but you didn't fight_,' The Voice hissed, never losing its silky element. '_And now…and now, you ugly, pathetic Ellen…now look where you are. Right where Giovanni had hoped you would be from the very beginning! The dead end! The snake's maw! The march of death! Straight to the slaughterhouse, chop, chop, chop! Such lovely blood will splash across the ground. Such wonderful sounds of snapping bones. Such delightful flesh will be peeled. Now that I mention it, Giovanni could just be tricking you. Ha! You're father probably isn't even there. Giovanni could just be leading you straight to your death, you idiot. Ha-ha! Leading you straight to your death.'_

Seized with anger as The Voice quietly slipped away, the girl screamed shrilly, "_WHERE ARE WE GOING_?"

"_HERE_!" There came a cry from Giovanni, as if The Voice had planned to taunt her at the very moment of arrival. Ellen shifted her head up to see a set of large metal doors, spanning almost the length of the group of Grunts. A Grunt walked forward to open the doors, and the girl found that the Rockets had released their grips from her arms, leaving her free. Free to leave. Free to run, if she could.

Even before she could formulate a plan for escape, several strong hands suddenly pushed her forward, sending the Anti-Trainer reeling painfully into the room. With each step upon the wounded foot came a sharp stab of distress, and through this the Rockets finally saw her shoe, raising eyebrows and questioning. Ellen found herself stumbling into a wall, holding her hands out to soften the blow; she collided with it and stopped for a moment, allowing herself to catch her breath and collect her thoughts. She was only vaguely aware of Giovanni and the Grunts standing in the doorway, and she fought to pay no mind to the intimidating figures as she turned her head to look around the room. It was a prison, as she would have guessed, but it was not as gruesome as the other was—in fact, it was fairly clean, as prisons went. The cells were father back, and taking one last look at Giovanni, for she knew not to trust him, the Anti-Trainer left the safety of the wall and stumbled towards the small cells, cement walls blocking her from seeing the occupants within.

"Can't you walk any faster?" taunted a Grunt's voice from behind, perhaps trying to live up to Giovanni's insults but failing miserably. The Boss shushed the Grunt sharply.

'_Fight and die, Ellen_,' The Voice murmured softly, when suddenly it became urgent. '_Look, look! Watch out, my dear! Giovanni has a gun in his hand and he's pointing it right at you_!'

Seized with sudden fear, the girl's head snapped around and her widened eyes targeted the Boss, and then his two hands. One was mangled and bandaged, the other at his side where she expected to see the revolver. Giovanni's forehead creased as he jerked his head a bit, telling her to go ahead.

'_I lied_,' The Voice said.

As Ellen turned around, she touched a hand to her temple as if the insanity was palpable. "Go to hell," she whispered furiously, limping forward, occasionally stumbling over cracked cement. She feared to remove the knife from her shoe; there was no telling what Giovanni would think of it. "Go to hell. Go to hell. Gotohell. Gotohellgotohellgotohell."

'_How can you tell yourself to go to hell? Look! Giovanni has a gun. Feolan is dead. The world is ending. Kaden is in front of you. You're going insane. Only one of those statements is true. Can you guess which one?_' The Voice paused as the girl reached the cells, peaking around the cement wall only to meet a line of bars. '_The last one is. Oh, look. The first cell_.'

Staring into the dark of the cell, she reached out and grabbed hold of one of the bars, tugging against it weakly. There was no door to enter, only the narrow spaces between the bars served as access. Squinting, she asked quietly, "Dad? Dad?" Her voice rose in volume, echoing through the silence. "_Dad_?" She half-expected Kaden to answer as if everything was completely normal.

The Voice snorted. '_Idiot. It's been twelve years. Do you think he'll really respond to 'Dad'_?'

"Kaden? Kaden Adler?" It was obviously he was not in the first cell, but there were many more to look through, and the Rockets had not moved from their place. Ellen passed the next cell, rattling the bars and calling her father's name countless times. No one was there? Well, on to the next. There were many more to search. It was only at the sixth or seventh cell that Ellen looked down at her hands to find them shaking weakly, bathed in a cold sweat. Her face was drained of color, even more so than it usually was. The girl desperately tried to whisk the anxiety away by mentally blaming the loss of blood. After all, she _did_ feel a little shaky. Yes, that was all. Only a loss of blood.

When she called Kaden's name again, her voice was high and trembling, staccato with unease. "_Kaden_…? _Kaden Adler_…?"

Suddenly she found herself stumbling across the prison furiously, uttering sharp, whining gasps. Kaden, Kaden—where was he? She had searched most of the cells, but he was nowhere to be found! The girl's lips stumbled over his name, mumbling it just as she had hummed his quote. However, this mantra brought her no comfort; it was frantic and crazed, twitching and frenzied.

"_KADEN_!?" she shrieked, almost driven to insane tears. "_KADEN_!?" Her hands curled around two more cell bars, restless as she screamed his name again. Nothing. Ellen felt that she was imagining it at first, but The Voice reared up in her mind and screeched with insane laughter, drowning out her screams. The hellish noise continued for quite sometime, even when Ellen staggered towards the last cell, arms outstretched, hand outreached like a specter. Noise echoed through the prison, a cacophony of torment. Screaming, laughing, stumbling, crying, searching, choking, howling, screaming, screaming, _screaming_—and there was a sharp, loud noise.

Everything became silent.

The silence was so sweet and lovely as Ellen dropped her hands to her side, her lips curling into a small, strained smile. No noise whatsoever, how beautiful. Like a sunset, like a full moon, or a rainbow, the silence was wonderful. In fact, _she_ felt wonderful. How proud Kaden would be to see her now, a lovely, brave girl.

Still smiling, she looked down to see a dark, crimson stain slowly crawling across the calf of her leg, branching out in tiny needles. Each little advancement of the stain, each tiny prickle that suddenly appeared, angry and scarlet, intrigued her so. Slowly, though, her smile faded away as she felt something else wash through her. Her leg began aching slightly, then slowly accumulating in pain and finally ablaze with agony, a screaming anguish of her limb.

Tearing her eyes away from the prickly stain and the agony that ripped her leg, she stared up at Giovanni, and to her horror saw him holding a revolver pointed directly at her, a sneer plastered on his face. No—it could not be described as a sneer. It was a look of pure satisfaction, of conceit and success.

Ellen simply stared at him, her eyes wide and blank. How stupid she had been to believe the Boss's smooth and tempting lies! He was Giovanni, her _enemy_. What had persuaded her to be so mindless in believing him? Perhaps the prospect of seeing Kaden drove her…Her lips trembled slightly. Without warning, she began to whimper, sending her mind crashing into a state of humiliation and fear. She was whining pathetically as if she were a dog. Giovanni had been right to call her a bitch.

The girl felt her leg give out and she collapsed on the ground, her cries furiously stopping as the Boss roared with laughter at seeing her so wretched. "Well…go ahead, you dog," he scorned smoothly. "Can't you crawl away? Escape me? Have Kaden protect you?" A loathing smile crawled across his face. "You've been shot before, haven't you?"

'_Poor Ellen,' _The Voice purred softly as Ellen lifted her head to stare fiercely at Giovanni, determined to regain her sense of worth. '_Poor, poor, poor, dear…it seems like Giovanni did have a gun…darn. Your poor leg is going to be a problem, isn't it? Well, not for long. The wonderful, powerful gun Giovanni is holding will put an end to you…_'

The Boss's dark features lit up in the same expression of satisfaction. "Oh. You haven't? Pity. Well, I still keep my promise that you'll see Kaden." On the other side of the room, Feolan, despite being drugged, jerked and snarled wildly in the Grunts grasps as Giovanni sauntered forward, gun pointed at Ellen. The girl jerked the knife from her shoe, wincing as it sliced against her flesh, and held it up at Giovanni, blood running from it's blade to her arm. The Boss paused in mid-step, still holding the cruel weapon. He chuckled, smoothing his hair back. "The knife is useless," he taunted. "Even when the knife was still Donovan's, I blocked it time and time again. I…"

As Ellen had been staring at the knife, accepting how useless it was, Giovanni's voice drifted from her mind as her eye caught sight of something. She peered furtively behind Giovanni, squinting slightly. She could have sworn that she…_there_. Again. A flash of orange scales, a wisp of pink fur. Could that be Charles and Mew, searching the area for her? Again, they retraced their steps and blurred by the prison once more. But how would she capture their attention? How would she direct them to her?

"I _didn't_ kill Donovan," Ellen blurted out loudly, randomly interrupting Giovanni in his speech.

The Boss stopped, frowning at her. "What?"

"I didn't kill Donovan," she cried again, propping herself up on both hands. They were wet from blood from pawing at her aching leg. "Troy did! Your own wife killed him!"

Giovanni's dark eyes narrowed like a snake's own, shining with malice. His voice shook with fury. "How _dare_ you. How _dare_ accuse my wife of your crime. I should hurt you for that. In fact, I think I will. I'll have a bit of fun before I kill you."

"Do you think I even know how to shoot a gun?" Ellen continued stridently, confidence dropping as the Boss walked forward, causing her to stumble back. Although she was terrified, the girl's face fought to stay angered as Giovanni's was. At this time, to show weakness was to die.

"Kaden did," he spat viciously. The two stumbled and walked deeper into the prison, the Grunts and Pokémon slowly disappearing behind bars and cement walls. "It's his fault you're going to die."

Ellen crawled to a wall and after testing both limbs out, slowly rose to her feet, legs shaking from both fear and pain, although one of them overpowered the other. For a split second, she looked behind her to reassure herself that the cells looped around in a circle, so that the two would exit in the place they began. "Shut up," the girl cried, shaking her head almost spastically. She wished to hide her face from the Boss and his cruel words, disappearing into the ground.

'_It's too bad that Giovanni has the ground under his control_,' The Voice smoothly pointed out, wrapping her mind with a cold embrace. '_Now, take my advice and call Charles—it's your last hope_.'

Ellen screamed, "_CHARLES_!"

As if the one word ceased all noise, all time, everything became silent. Giovanni was startled out of speech, and the Grunts had been hushed by the sudden outburst. Even The Voice had quieted, slipping from her with a silent chuckle. The air seemed to be preparing for what was slowly advancing it time, and when it came, it did indeed kill the silence.

A great burst of light flickered and played on the prison walls, illuminating the two enemies' faces, as terrific flames burst through the doorway, scattering the Grunts in all directions. Feolan and Phil jumped from the group, the wolf yelping as he twitched on the floor, rubbing out a small flame that was burning on his fur. Gengar, who was currently on fire and slowly crumbling into ashes, took a final stab at victory and took a large bite out of Kyoshi's life force, swallowing it quickly before crumbling completely and releasing the life force from his hand and back into Kyoshi. There were telltale colors of orange and pink hesitating in the doorway as Charles and Mew carefully stepped and floated through the doorway, alert lest there be any other Grunts creeping about. Charles's face, partly masked by smoke, was creased with worry as he surveyed the room and Pokémon, while Mew looked positively haughty, despite him doing absolutely nothing.

As Charles's shadow rounded the cell corner, Giovanni's face twisted in anger. "You slut!" he cursed at Ellen, waving the gun and causing her to stumble back and fall to the ground in fear. "_Godamnit_…! _You_! Let's see if you can scream when I rip your jaw off!"

"_Giovanni_! GIOVANNI!" The Charizard, his draconian face full of hate, strode menacingly forward as the Boss tensed up from hearing the horrible roar. He swiveled the gun around to point at Charles, but the dragon simply knocked him out of the way with his claw, causing him to crash against the wall and tumble to the floor. "Ellen!" He jogged up to her, carefully helping her stand up. "Are you—" he noticed her bleeding leg, eyes widening. "What _happened_!?"

The girl stared at him, noticing various cuts and scratches littered about his face. Her voice sounded oddly detached as she spoke the next lines, her face would occasionally pucker as if to cry. "Giovanni…shot me…after…he said that I could see my dad…but…but he wasn't here, and, and he shot me in the leg and it hurts…and The Voice started tellin' me I was gonna die, but then it was helping me, too, and…" she trailed off, sighing. "What happened to Feolan and Phil and Kyoshi?"

Charles gaped at her as if she was insane, which in fact she was, but quickly recollected himself and told her gently, "They're all in the front of the prison fighting the Grunts off. Can you walk?"

She dropped her head, nodding. "I think. Yeah."

"Can you walk _fast_?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure…wait, where's Mew?"

The Charizard looked away from her and sighed, calling out for Mew. Ellen looked behind the dragon's shoulder to reassure herself that Giovanni was still immobilized, which in fact he was. The Boss was seated against the wall, his injured hand placed upon the back of his head, rubbing it slightly. It looked as if he was stunned in some way, but moments after Ellen looked at him, his face turned to her, eyes fixed on hers. He removed the hand from his head, wiping blood onto the wall (from the hand or head, no one knew), and eagerly tapped the handgun he was still holding, mouth forming a fearsome grin. The Anti-Trainer's breath was caught in terror as she fearfully mumbled something to Charles.

'_What was that_?' The Voice asked sweetly. '_Scared? I can't even hear you. Giovanni looks very excited to kill you. After all, killing Anti-Trainers is his hobby…and you're practically the best game he's ever hunted. Considering he believes the Anti-Trainers are animals.'_

"Why the hell won't you go away?" Ellen retorted quietly.

'_Because I'm all the thoughts, words, people, and scenarios you're ever experienced, combined. I'm all those words you don't understand. I'm those thoughts you didn't want to think, I'm those people who you either loved or hated. I'm the time you're back was destroyed. I'm everything you've experienced that built up and was finally released, free to enter your mind. I'm whatever I want to be. I'm insanity,_' The Voice crooned warmly, fading away again.

Seconds later, Mew floated lazily to Charles and Ellen, smirking at the dragon. "Hey, shitfaces," he greeted jovially, pausing to scoff a large, bloody piece of intestine off his paw. "What's up? _God_. Back there, with all those Grunts—it's _awesome_. Seriously, you should see all the crazy shit…yeah, pretty freakin' awesome. So, whatdya want?"

Charles narrowed his eyes cryptically at Mew. "Well, two things. One, I'd like you to get Ellen out of here, and two…" he turned to a surprised Ellen. "Mew admitted to me something _very_ interesting that I thought you would like to know…especially if Giovanni lied and you're still looking for Kaden—"

"GIOVANNI?" Mew boomed randomly, cutting an annoyed Charles off. The kitten looked around dramatically, his large blue eyes finally resting on the Boss. "Giovanni? Um, right. Wow, you guys weren't lying…_God_. Holy shit. Okay, Shelia—"

"_Ellen_!" The girl exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah, Katie. Whatever." He tugged on her arm impatiently, rubbing blood on her jacket. "Now, let's get the hell outa here! _God_."

Ellen looked back at Charles, who nodded and gave her a knowing look. Her mind reverted to a similar scene in which her family and friends had done just the same thing in a blind act to save her, and Giovanni had killed them all. Yes, she had left them, but not willingly. The thought of leaving them was unfathomable at first. Now, though…now was something different. The girl was fearful for her life. She had escaped death when it seemed inevitable, and now she was being given the chance to have an even greater likelihood of surviving. She was ashamed to admit this, but she did indeed want to leave with Mew. She cared about her Pokémon, of course, but the look Giovanni had given her, the hateful look, the murderous grin, anticipating and watching the bullet drive through her…it was too much to bear.

"Okay…" she agreed guiltily, looking back at Charles. "But…is everything gonna be okay for you guys?"

"Yeah," Mew barked, interrupting the dragon. With a flick of his tail, he whipped around and beckoned Ellen with his paw. "Just _great_."

"It'll be fine," Charles said hurriedly, pushing her away with his claws. "Now, go."

Ellen hobbled after Mew, turning around in the entrance area of the prison, which had truly turned into a battle scene. Several Grunts were fighting barehanded with the Pokémon, who seemed to be winning at one moment and losing in the next. The Arbok would strike at the various Pokémon, they would dodge the attacks, and the picture would repeat. Back and forth, back and forth. Throughout the chaos, she could not see the Pokémon, but occasionally she would see a flash of white, a fin of blue, a tawny coat. Through the dim light, shadows rearing up against the stone walls, the girl could clearly see the door to the exit.

Something soft touched her hand, and she looked up to see Mew anxiously tugging at it. "Come on, come on. _God_. It's just a quick run. Nuthin' much." Ellen suddenly became aware that Mew did not see the state of her leg, but before she could protest, the kitten jerked her off with surprising strength. Pain shot through her leg as she stumbled across the room, ducking away from a Grunt with half her body being consumed by fire. The exit seemed so far away, and yet it was so close—but the time it took to reach the exit seemed like an eternity for Ellen, and yet she suddenly found herself out of the hellish room and into a bright hallway. The sudden light dazzled the girl's eyes for a few moments, but she quickly became accustomed to the harsh bright of the ceiling lamps.

As Mew bid her to come along, there was a sharp, loud noise from behind Ellen. It did not take long for the two to guess who had fired the gun, and the Legendary quickly began to levitate down the hallway. The girl limped after him, dearly trying to keep in time with Mew, although it was terribly hard. Her leg, which was still paining viciously, only wanted to shake or go limp.

"Mew!" she gasped after a bit. Her voice trembled as she recalled the fierce shot behind her, the bullet that could have ended her life. "Hot damn, Mew! I got shot in the leg, I can't run anymore!" Having no energy to use, she eased over to a wall, breathing heavily and wincing at her leg. "Can't you heal me?"

Mew swept over hastily, his face a mask of annoyance. "Listen, healin' Charles wasn't a piece of cake. The best I can do right now is fix up a paper cut. _God_. You humans always make huge deals out of…" looking down slowly, his eyes widened when he saw the gun wound. "Whoa, shit! Did Giovanni really shoot you?"

"Whatdya _think_?"

Something strange occurred; Mew's face changed very suddenly. It became much kinder, if that was even possible, and he seemed almost _considerate_. "Uh…um…well…well…come on, then. Here." The kitten took hold on her arm and propped it around his shoulders. They began to walk again, total silence crawling through the hallway. Occasionally, Mew would sneak worried looks at the Anti-Trainer, but she had no idea why. After all, he was not known for his kindness or sympathy.

They continued on the hallways, weaving through various entrances, walking through quiet paths. Despite the desperate scenario, Ellen managed to smirk. This was what her journey was meant for: to finally lead her to the Team Rocket Headquarters and defeat the Rockets, and she would probably die. The question was, though, would she be ready to die if she did? The answer was clear: of course, she was not. Yes, she was mostly alone in the world, but that was not a good excuse to allow Giovanni another murder. Although it sounded cliché, one of the main reasons that she wanted to live was because _she was too young to die_. She was only an adolescent; some could consider her a child if they wanted to.

Not a sound was heard for quite a while, besides Ellen's ragged breathing and the scuff of shoes against the floor. It was only a small time into their walk that the Anti-Trainer questioned Mew as to where they were going.

"Why the hell would I know?" Mew snapped quietly. "_God_. I don't remember half this place. I'm just supposed to take you somewhere safuuuhhhh…whoa…" the kitten suddenly stopped levitating and perked his feline ears up, listening intently. Ellen could hear nothing, but Mew dropped her arm from his shoulder and floated forward to where a door broke off into yet another hallway or room. The girl inched forward to see where he was going, but the kitten gestured with his paw to be still.

After what seemed like hours, he closed the door, floated back, and hissed to Ellen, "Freaking Grunts. In the next room. A whole shitload of them. _God_."

She stared at him, colorless face holding nothing but despair, and groaned, "Damnit…"

"But I'll take care of them," Mew added quickly, Ellen's face quizzical. "Look, I'll go through here and kill off the Grunts so they don't get up your ass, and you…ummm…" he slowly spun around in the air and pointed at a smaller hallway. "There. Your escape route."

"Is it safe?" she asked.

The kitten stared at her, frowning. '_Idiot_,' he thought. '_Nothin' is safe here_'. "Uh, yeah, it is. Bye," he lied briskly, suddenly sweeping through the doorway, telepathically closing it behind him, and leaving Ellen alone in the hallway. Alone.

A chilling thought sprung upon her. What if the Rockets had hidden and were waiting to pounce? What if the Pokémon had already been killed, and Mew already captured by the dozens, maybe even hundreds of Grunts lying in wait? What if she was completely unaided? Everyone else, dead? Her pulse rapidly increased, along with short, choked breaths. Yes, that was it. Everyone else had died. Even Mew, who was only with her mere seconds ago. Perhaps she was dead as well; this was just a lingering thought of life left behind. Perhaps the whole region had simply _died_. Perhaps she did not even exist; this was just a figment of dream that had morphed into reality.

'_Or perhaps you're insane_,' The Voice murmured.

Even thought she did not want to, Ellen agreed with The Voice. After all, The Voice was simply Insanity manifesting itself into a palpable form of life. The only way to know that she was sane again was when The Voice left completely, never reappearing again…but something else was bothering her. Once or twice, it seemed The Voice had actually _helped her_. It had told her when to call Charles and it had even guessed that Giovanni had been lying to her about seeing Kaden. Most of the time, it had been harmful and hurtful, but times like the aforementioned had saved her life.

"Are you tryin' to help me, or kill me?" the girl demanded to technically herself, because The Voice had merged with her mind. "One freakin' minute you're helping me, the next you're tryin' to scare me!"

There was a pause before The Voice released a soft hum of thought. Its smooth, musical voice was almost intoxicating, but Ellen knew not to trust such things. '_It depends. Just remember what I am._'

"You could be anything."

'_Exactly. One minute, I can be Giovanni…_' Ellen trembled at the thought, '_And one minute I can be Fredia or Russell or Kaden or Kyoshi or any number of friends and family_. _Or Donovan, even. How do you think you had enough will-power to drive a knife into Giovanni_?' she stared down at the knife curiously, tossing it back and forth in her hands. Just a large, simple kitchen knife and nothing more. One would have never known it belonged to a Rocket. '_Right, there you go. However, it's all metaphorical, of course. I couldn't be a 'person', I'm just snippets of them. And sometimes, I can be my own self, regardless of people you've met or things you've done. Does that answer your question_?'

"No," the Anti-Trainer muttered bluntly, picking at the dried blood on the knife. "You're just tryin' to confuse me again."

'_No, you're just stupid_.'

"Shut _up_!"

The Voice laughed softly before growing silent and allowing a new sound to enter her mind. It was hollow and dull, as if it was covered by a dense fog or muffled by something. The noise would echo throughout her mind and suddenly zip to a central point of concentrated noise, loud and disturbing. Speaking over the rapidly changing sound, The Voice asked, '_Do you know what that is_?'

Ellen paused, listening intently. The noise was so confusing that she scarcely could listen to it. "It sounds like…hammering."

'_Guess again_.'

A guessing game!? The girl bit her lower lip nervously, her breath still rapid. "Uh…clapping." Wrong. "Punching." Wrong. She clenched her teeth together, closing her eyes. "Holy shit, I need to leave…uh…um…footsteps?"

'_Very good_.' The Voice sounded pleased, the footsteps still echoing through her mind.

"Why'd you do that?" she demanded furiously, clutching her head and digging her fingers into her scalp.

The Voice laughed again. '_Why, see for yourself_! _Look up_!'

The girl jerked her head up and opened her eyes, face rapidly changing to horror when she beheld the sight. Down the short hallway, a figure crept around the corner with the same footsteps she had heard in her mind, a figure Ellen identified as none other than Giovanni. He could almost be called a silhouette, his black suit creating the appearance of some odd shadow. Across his shoulder was a large, deep gash, blood soaking into the torn coat and shirt, the gun in his hand trembling. The Boss was grinning, though. Grinning at Ellen's fear—a grin accompanied by wild eyes, as if he could feel no pain. As if he was invincible. Surely, Charles, Feolan, or Kyoshi had attacked him, and yet he had escaped. If that was so, then what had happened to the Pokémon!?

Giovanni took a haggard step forward, still beaming. Ellen stumbled back in fear and looked to the door Mew had directed her to go through, heart pounding in her chest.

'_How do you know you're not hallucinating?'_ The Voice asked sweetly. '_I could have just created those footsteps just to confuse you_.'

"N-no!" The Anti-Trainer cried wildly, edging towards the door. "Shut up! _Shut up_! He's real, damnit, he's real!" A choked breath escaped her throat, tears springing in her eyes. Giovanni continued to walk forward, his breathing labored. "Leave me _alone_!"

'_No_.'

"FIERY SAPPHIRE!" The Boss roared suddenly, thus proving he was real. "FIERY SAPPHIRE! You bitch, come here so I can kill you! Allow yourself to die like the other Anti-Bastards!" He held his pistol up and fired a bullet, narrowly missing Ellen. The cartridge imbedded itself in the plaster wall, and Giovanni began roaring with laughter as Ellen whined with fear at seeing the bullet and broke into a sprint, ducking into the escape hallway. "RUN! RUN ALL YOU LIKE, DOG! THAT'S THE THRILL OF THE HUNT!" He paused, allowing himself to rest. He had to admit, that Mightyena did quite a toll on him when it slashed him. Nevertheless, he felt adrenaline rushing through his veins in anticipation. What a splendid way to have Fiery Sapphire die, hunted down like the Pokémon she was and shot. However, shooting was a bit boring. His mind was filled with creative ways of execution that would spill much more blood. After all, this was a special occasion. Fiery Sapphire had been a major enemy to Team Rocket, and Giovanni was anxious to have revenge for the numerous wounds she had given him. Shooting would not be the proper punishment, it was simply too quick and quiet. He felt the desire for something particularly brutal.

Giovanni watched the door his enemy had exited through and placed a hand on the large gash in his shoulder, wincing as he felt the marred flesh. Gnashing his teeth in anger, he roared, "I'M COMING FOR YOU, FIERY SAPPHIRE! I SWEAR TO YOU, YOU WILL NOT LEAVE MY HEADQUARTERS ALIVE! _YOU WILL DIE_!"

As Ellen listened to the Boss's cruel words, huddled up in the corner of a closet like a mouse, she fully believed that his words were true.

OoO

It was Mew's nature to make regal entrances, as he often did. Being a small pink kitten did have its advantages—despite being called female by numerous people, the benefits included complete and utter attention from everyone within a radius of several miles. Well, perhaps that was exaggerating a _bit_. All the same, Mew was the type of Legendary who enjoyed being the center of attention.

Bursting into a room full of Grunts was different, though, and the kitten was forced to turn invisible and quietly slip through the two doors, hoping no one saw him. Without taking a glance at the Grunts, he cast his eyes up to the rafters in the ceiling and flew up to them, seating himself on a particularly large wooden one. Feeling safer, he allowed himself to become visible, (being invisible did not suit him; he hated the light, minty-fresh feeling), and looked down.

If Mew had believed that the room had contained a small number of Grunts, he was terribly inaccurate. One could scarcely see the bright white of the floor from the number of black uniforms rustling about the area. It was a sea of shadow, each wave swaying and moving to its own accord. On seeing the vast ocean of Rockets, the Legendary's forehead creased. He did not remember Team Rocket being so large. Last time he was here, not counting when he was captured—how long ago was it? Twelve years? Right, Team Rocket seemed quite smaller then. Maybe he was just imagining things, but despite their number they did not look as fierce as they had in a smaller group. When Team Rocket was younger, Giovanni had obviously picked a close-knit group of people to work with him, stolidly set in their criminal ways. Now Team Rocket may have been larger but the vast majority of Grunts were composed mostly of petty thieves, bums, prostitutes, drug lords, ruffians, corrupt trainers, and the occasional employee-gone-bad. Few of them seemed to be enjoying their lives of crime unlike Giovanni, whose life practically fed on crime.

Mew heaved a large sigh. '_What the frick am I doing_?' he thought to himself dully, licking his now mucus covered paw after sticking a claw up his nose. '_Dude, I'm up against a bazillion Grunts all for that asshole Katie and her shitty Pokémon friends. What am I gonna do, sacrifice myself from them? Hell no. Screw this, I'm outa here. Sally can die for all I care_.' Finishing the last traces of mucus off his paw, he turned invisible again and began his journey from the rafters. He was almost to the exit when suddenly, the doors opened wide to allow various Pokémon figures to enter the room.

Anyone could guess who these figures were; the tired caravan of travelers. When the four saw the Grunts in front of them and the Grunts saw the four Pokémon in front of them, the reactions were much different from when Mew had entered. A switch had gone off in their minds, a simple realization. The Rockets identified the Pokémon as enemies, as creatures who assisted the Anti-Trainers. The Pokémon identified the Rockets as enemies, as Grunts who assisted Giovanni. Their views were very different, but they still held the same feeling: _hate_.

"Oh, _shit_," Feolan yelped, red eyes widening at the terrific amount of Rockets.

"ASSHOLES!" Mew cried, genuine happiness bursting in his voice (although the only reason he was happy was that they would most likely die before him). "You've come to rescue little ole' me!" His sudden outburst rendered him visible, sending gasps of surprise through the crowd of Rockets.

"A Legendary/Mew/Mewtwo/Cat/Experiment?" the Grunts babbled.

Mew anxiously beckoned his semi-friends. "Come on, now you can beat up these weenies for me and we can all find Katie!"

"_ELLEN_," Charles, Feolan, and Phil yelled.

"Er…right…" Kyoshi mumbled. The Persian's Psychic mentally was not very stable at the time—in fact, her mind had been maimed horribly when Gengar devoured a part of her life force. It was as if several limbs had been snapped, chewed thoroughly, scalded, and torn off. Her mind was in a state of complete and utter emptiness, there was no clear thought whatsoever…for the time being, at least.

"Are you kidding?" Charles snorted at the feline. "You want us to battle _all_ of them? No, we're finding Ellen. You can go rot, for all I care!"

"But I _helped_ you!" he screeched madly, wringing his paws.

"Oh, Charles told us all about it." Feolan rolled his eyes. "Seems like you weren't much help at all. Seems like you made it worse!"

"But—"

"_No_," said the Charizard sternly, turning around to open the door, but suddenly being tackled by a giant, avian form that sent him flying across the room before his wings caught the air and he regained his balanced mid-air. "What was that!?" he demanded, blood spilling from two claw marks down his torso. He looked around along with the rest of the Pokémon, their eyes finally resting on…

Aerodactyl.

But it was not Aerodactyl.

The proper name for the creature leering at them would be No-Longer Aerodactyl, who indeed was Aerodactyl inwardly, but her physical appearance was so grotesque and abnormal that even Mew resisted the urge to vomit. Her head was scalded and black, large, red blisters and welts popping up across her skull. The very small remnants of a neck, still attached to her head, were connected to her charred, blistered torso by thick black thread, which perhaps was meant to blend into her coloring, but ultimately stood out because of the red infection spreading across her neck. Because the fossil Pokémon's wings had burnt off, two large, crimson Salamence wings had been sown onto where her wings would normally be. Not only did she have a pair of oversized wings, but No-Longer Aerodactyl also had the addition of two lethal Kabutops scythes attached just above her wings. Compared to Charles, the Pokémon was now monstrous and towered over the dragon, displaying her jagged, yellow incisors in a grin.

Mew's jaw dropped slightly at the sight of the creature. "Holy _shit_. You're supposed to be dead! I…I smashed you under a freaking table!"

No-Longer Aerodactyl giggled in an eerie, hoarse voice, her vocal chords destroyed. She leaned over to Mew until they were eye-to-eye, her eyes filmed and bloodshot. "You can't kill me that easily, silly," she rasped, as most of the Grunts winced. "Some Grunts heard all the commotion, and found me under the table. I was in shock. Giovanni obviously needed his signature flying Pokémon, so the Grunts and Scientists took some old Pokémon limbs left over from other experiments and sowed them onto to me. Easy as pie." The fossil Pokémon decided to leave out that it was incredibly painful, as they not only sowed on the limbs while she was conscious, but they also had to connect the nerve ending together and re-grow them, create titanium bones, and reconstruct her entire muscle base.

"Yeah…" Mew drawled slowly, backing away from the grinning maw. "But…yer _really_ _ugly_. I mean, you look like crap's crap. Why would Giovanni want to still keep you?"

"I am _not_ ugly," she huffed angrily, wings flaring up in anger. "My new form is simply magnificent! Giovanni is lucky to have such a regal Pokémon such as myself. Why, every Pokémon I meet trembles in fear of my greatness, if I don't eat them first, of course. Besides, now that I'm all better, I'm even stronger than _you_ are!" She turned to Charles. "And you! You're a weakling compared to me now!" She looked down at the others with disgust. "And you're not even worthy of being talked about."

"Hey!" Feolan cried angrily, glaring up at her. He grit his teeth, trying very hard to conceal the Dark Matter he was concocting in his front paws.

"Yeah right!" Mew scoffed furiously, slowly levitating higher up into the air and surpassing his enemy and the Grunts. "_God_. You'll never be stronger than me, 'cuz I'm…" he cleared his throat, adapting the deep, commanding God-voice. "MEW, GOD OF KANTO, RULER OF ALL, EATER OF MANY, HOTTEST OF BACHELORS, AND COOLEST SHIT OF ALL COOL SHIT!" From his paw, he fired several deep purple orbs, spiraling them into No-Longer Aerodactyl. The scythes on her back rapidly extended outwards and deflected the Psychic attacks, sending them crashing down upon a group of Grunts who were seized with a spasm of pain as their lungs combusted inside of them and their bones hyper-extended, erupting from their various limbs and turning them into bloody piles.

"Uh…whoops?" No-Longer Aerodactyl said in a scratchy voice, looking down at the Rockets. "Oh well, there's always plenty more of them."

Feolan took this moment to unleash the powerful orb he had concocted, shooting it directly at her head. The Dark Matter instantly enveloped her head and she screamed and thrashed wildly as it began to dissolve the thick, stone-like hide. Both clawing at her head and turning to the Grunts, she screamed, "DO SOMETHING!"

They did not need to understand what she had said to realize the situation. A single Grunt screamed an order at his Raticate, a terribly overgrown, brown rat with a set of yellowed rodent teeth, to attack. With surprising agility the rat leapt forward and tackled Phil to the ground, the Swampert uttering a surprised '_meep_!' as they tumbled into a wall.

A spout of water hit the rat square in the nose, tossing it backwards, shrieking. Phil quickly scrabbled to his four fins and surveyed the area, fear growing in his heart as he saw numerous Grunts produce Pokéballs from their pockets. His gaze shifted to Charles, who was hovering in the air to look for Mew. Kyoshi was in a corner. Feolan was still in open ground. And Mew…?

Mew took the moment No-Longer Aerodactyl was distracted to retreat from the scene and soar up to the large wooden rafters that held the room and ultimately building together. He was half-tempted to destroy the rafters and thus destroy the Headquarters, but even though Katie did not get on his good side, he did not want to risk killing her off. After all…well…yeah.

Groaning, he crept into a tight corner of the roof and sat (more like cowered) there for a bit, peeking out of the small shard of window that rested there. An expanse of forest and ocean was spread out against the landscape, giving way to the afternoon sky. If he had not been in a messy situation, Mew would have thought that it was a perfect day to eat things, especially Oddish. _Mmm, Oddish_…

He was thrown out of his thoughts by a powerful gust of wind, and nimbly leapt from the rafter to rafter as No-Longer Aerodactyl spiraled up into the air, her huge wings blocking escape. Like a deranged bat she clung onto several rafters, smirking at Mew as she nervously placed one talon after another on the wooden beams. She snapped at him, causing the feline to arch his back in fear and hiss, holding a paw up with claws unsheathed.

The pterodactyl choked out a hoarse ghost of a laugh. "Heehee, you're _scared_ of me. I can't blame you, though." Taking a step forward, she looked down to the fuzzy mass of Grunts below. "Look at them all. Either you fall down to _them_, or you have to go against me. Which scares you more? Being defeated by one Pokémon, or being defeated by a crowd of mere _humans_?"

"Uh…_God_." Mew suddenly disappeared. The pterodactyl's eyes popped open as she was hit with an intense wave of pain, and swung one of her wings at the invisible Mew. He hit back. Thus, the two commenced fighting.

Meanwhile, more Grunts had unleashed their Pokémon upon the four teammates. Phil had been driven to his limit and ended up fleeing from the Raticate, only to meet several other vicious-looking Pokémon. "_MEEEEEWWW_!" Phil's voice shrieked, dimmed by the various Pokémon cries around him. "_MEEEEEEWWW_! HELP US!"

"He's not gonna help us!" Feolan roared angrily, tearing a Granbull away from the Swampert and tossing it across the room. "Don't you understand!?"

"No!" screamed Phil, battering a Magmar with a stream of water. "No! He's supposed to help us!" He's MEW!"

Feolan and Phil continued to try to ward off a bare minimum of Grunts. The Rockets were much stronger than they expected, equipped with such fierce Pokémon—Arboks, Golducks, Machokes, Primeapes, Electrode—Feolan and Phil regarded these humans and Pokémon with wild eyes, their bodies torn with scratches and bites. Blood was oozing from one of Phil's large gills, and Feolan had received a bite on his ear that tore a bit of it off.

While the two bravely fought for survival, Kyoshi had slunk into a corner, perhaps involuntarily, perhaps not, and placed two paws on her head. Everything seemed so _dead_ in her. Fur matted down and soiled, eyes dull and filmed, forehead gem particularly faint. She did not even notice as several Grunts realized her weak position and slowly formed a circle around her.

As Charles touched down onto the floor, he surveyed the area, taking in Feolan and Phil, and…where was Kyoshi?

He suddenly noticed the circle of Grunts was suddenly seized with an urge, a furious, hateful urge to kill. The dragon pushed his comrades aside and stepped forward, opening his mouth wide, and spewed huge tongues of flame towards the Grunts, the fire licking their uniforms ravenously as flames slowly consumed their clothing. In a matter a mere seconds, the Rockets had been reduced to gruesomely burnt corpses, their limbs twisting in abnormal positions. The others around them gaped in fear. One fainted. One produced a Swiss Army knife from their pocket and slit their throat, quietly committing suicide.

"Whoa, Charles went berserk!" Phil cried, pointing his fin at the Charizard. "No way! And now the Rockets are killing themselves! _Cool_!"

"Phil," growled Feolan as he walked forward, hitting the Swampert on the arm. "We need to help Charles, idiot!"

"Oh…"

Charles pushed through the dead and half-dead crowd of Grunts while Feolan and Phil trailed behind. None of the other Grunts dared to move. They found Kyoshi in a corner, staring into space with blank eyes.

"Hey, hey, oi, Kyoshi!" Feolan barked, trotting up to her. He stopped, waving a paw in front of her face. "Kyoshi, what's up?"

"I got a boo-boo!" Phil whined unnecessarily, displaying a sliced up fin. "Heal it, please!"

"I…can't," Kyoshi almost whispered. "I can't."

"Uh…okay…" the Mightyena stared at her as Charles walked up. "Hey, are you…ya know…okay? I mean, after that Gengar totally—"

"_Please_." the Persian held her paw up to silence her comrade. "Please don't talk about it. I…that's the reason I can't heal Phil or you or Charles or anyone else now. Gengar…destroyed some of my powers. Healing…the little hope of levitation— _gone_. I'm sorry. I'm _so_ sorry…" With that, she began to weep openly, leaving the others in a worried and slightly awkward position.

Phil looked at Feolan for help, who simply raised one of his non-existent eyebrows at him. "Hey, don't look at me. I'll probably make it worse," the wolf said. Noticing the painfully obvious scenario, the wolf pushed Charles forward with his paw and mumbled something about 'weird babies'.

"Er…everything is going to be fine?" Charles patted Kyoshi on the back.

Feolan smacked a paw on his forehead, groaning. "Holy shit, we don't have all the time in the world. Just hug or kiss or something, okay? Ellen could be dying right now."

Kyoshi seemed to have recovered slightly now that Charles was by her. "Well, all right. Here." The Persian nuzzled his snout and licked it gently. "There. How was that?"

"EWWW!" Phil screamed, despite the Swampert well knowing the kiss was going to happen, and in the process attracting all attention. "My _eyes_! _MY EYES_!"

Suddenly, the huge form No-Longer Aerodactyl flew from the rafters, leering down at the Pokémon. "Well, well, well! Seems like Mr. Charizard is getting in on with Mizz Persian!"

"You know, you're really lame," Feolan intoned at her.

She narrowed her eyes. "Oh you…" she stopped abruptly, nostril's flaring. "What's that smell? What's going on!? It smells like poison ga—" her head swiveled to stare down at a Grunt with his Wheezing, the giant, toxic spheres spewing poisonous, colorless gas from its craters. The pterodactyl's eyes widened as she began to whimper, which eventually turned into a fierce roar. "YOU IDIOT! NOW _I'M_ GOING TO DIE ALONG WITH ALL OF _YOU_!"

Kyoshi and Charles broke away from their embrace as they scanned the room for an exit. "There," the Charizard whispered, nodding his head at the door they had come through. "If we can get there really fast…"

"HA!" No-Longer Aerodactyl sung triumphantly. "I can hear you because I have scientifically advanced hearing, nananana!" With rapid speed, she swooped down at them, cackling madly. "I'm going to RIP YOU UP!" The Pokémon scattered and ran towards the exit, only to hear their enemy's mad scream of, "NO!"

The Grunts slowly began hacking and vomiting due to the chemicals, and panic rushed through the Pokémon's minds as they slowly felt choked by an invisible presence. Phil erupted into tears, gasping and retching as the gas slowly suffocated him. They were almost to the door—almost.

"Oh, Mew, we're going to die!" Kyoshi panted, wailing with fear. "No, no, this can't happen!"

"Yes it can!" No-Longer Aerodactyl wheezed behind them.

The doorway was tall and foreboding in front of them, but they leapt through it as if welcomed. Charles struggled to get up, his vision hazed by the poison, and grab the door handles. No-Longer Aerodactyl's face transformed from wicked delight to horror, and she screamed shrilly as the dragon slammed the doors shut on her, melding the thin line of metal on the end of the door together with a small flame. The pterodactyl continued to bang on the door with her head, screaming obscenities, until her efforts slowly collapsed until there was silence.

The Persian gasped for breath before saying, "That…was horrible. _Horrible_. Oh, God, I can't believe I'm saying this, but those poor, poor Grunts…"

"I feel all tingly…" Phil murmured, staring with genuine interest at his fins. "Why is…hey, wait? Where'd Mew go?"

"Mew?" Charles and Feolan asked simultaneously. They looked at each other, wide-eyed.

"Oh, crap, we forgot Mew," Feolan gasped. Suddenly, there was a popping noise from behind him.

"Hey, guys," Mew said casually, yawning. "Crazy fight, huh? Yeah, _God_. Good shit, good shit…" He paused at the amazed expressions of his not-so-friends. "What? I just went invisible and snuck out. I did way to much work before—it was time for you guys to help out."

Charles frowned at him. "We were almost killed, Mew."

"So? Not my problem. You're fault you even came in."

"Asshole," muttered Feolan. Before Mew could form a rebuttal, the Mightyena asked, "Does anyone know where Ellen went?"

"Uh…that-a-way." The kitten pointed down a hallway. "At least…I think. _God_."

Kyoshi asked, "Are you positive?"

"Maybe…yeah, I'm pretty sure. Yeah."

And they walked and floated away.

OoO

Ellen silently waited in the corner of a large, dark closet, arms curled around her shins, face buried in her knees. Her heart was pounding furiously in her chest, so fast that the girl imagined it would suddenly stop. Perhaps it would be better to die that way, to have something simply stop in you, and thus your body expires swiftly and restfully.

She gingerly touched her gun wound, wincing as she felt for the bullet. She had no experience tending to wounds at all, let alone pulling a small bullet from her leg. How sickening and painful it felt to softly dig through torn flesh and muscle. Having no luck in finding the bullet, she allowed her hand to limply fall to the ground, wet with blood. The knife in her hand trembled violently, and quite suddenly, she began to cry very quietly, muffling her sobs in her tired arms. Her body wracked with fierce sobs, shaking and suffering.

The Voice silently entered her mind and spoke with the sweet, echoing tone, sympathy clouding its voice. '_There, there, Ellen_,' it whispered soothingly, '_there, there._ _Nothing to be worried about, there's nothing to be worried about at all. If Giovanni finds you, just beg for a quiet, rapid death…one without pain._'

"No," she hissed, shaking her head. "No _frickin'_ way…I'm not listenin' to you…no…"

'_Everything would end as quickly as your heart stopping…it will end everything, you know_…! _Ahh…_' The Voice left, chuckling softly.

"…_Fiery Sapphire…_" Another voice struck up, although this one was not in Ellen's subconscious, but in reality—and it was very familiar. Deep, smooth, authoritative …and fraught with the undeniable twinges of threatening and cruelty. Terror froze Ellen as Giovanni's voice echoed through the headquarters again. "_…Fiery Sapphire? Where are you? Come out, this is childish…and so typical of Anti-Trainers_…COME OUT, GODAMNIT!" The doorknob to the closet rattled madly, the door shaking in its hinges.

The girl sprung up from the ground and a seething pain ripped through her leg, forcing her to lean against the wall for merely a second. She soon backed away from the door fearfully, knowing that even if the door were locked, it would still not withstand Giovanni's strength. Although there was no window in the door, Ellen could clearly picture the Boss's face: mouth set in a thin, small smile, brows furrowed, an eerie mixture of rage and satisfaction, black hair was still immaculate and combed back despite battles.

A door rested in the opposite wall, just as nondescript as the one Giovanni was slowly bringing down. Without thinking where it would go or what would happen if she went through it, Ellen staggered around and stumbled madly through the doorway, slamming into a wall as she careened through a hallway almost identical to the one she had been in before. Behind her, there was the sickening split of wood and the snap of worn hinges as the closet door fell to the ground, Giovanni stepping through it just in time to see the girl fleeing.

Heart beating, she blindly navigated through the seeming infinite hallway. Everything looked the same—wall, tinted window, wall, tinted window, wall, tinted window…they passed by in blurs of motion. It seems she had entered a somewhat isolated area, for there were no Grunts or scientists littering the hallway. In fact, the area seemed oddly empty.

Just as Ellen thought she could run no longer, she turned a corner and flattened herself against it, making not a sound. The knife seemed useless now that Giovanni had the ancient revolver in his hand.

'_A gun can kill coldly and easily_,' The Voice suddenly put it, '_but a knife has to labor and toil to kill_. _Sound familiar_?'

"Quiet," she mumbled, hope dropping when she realized The Voice was only in her head. Her hands began to shake. _I'm telling you for the last freakin' time_, she thought fiercely, _go away, or I'm gonna…gonna_…

'_Bash your head in? Face it, Ellen, I'll never go away. And by the way, shouldn't you be looking out for Giovanni, because he's right in front of you_!'

The girl tore at her hair madly, slowly placing her face in her hands and sobbing. Her scalp was bleeding from several small chunks of hair she had yanked out. "You're lying! YOU'RE LYING!"

Whilst Ellen was shaking madly, blood dripping down her face and head to mingle with tears, Giovanni had turned the corner, smoothly aiming the revolver at her head. There was the small click of a trigger falling into place, but the Boss did not shoot. His face faulted in confusion, not comprehending the behavior of the Anti-Trainer.

"What in the hell is wrong with you?" the Boss demanded fiercely, cracking the gun across Ellen's face.

She stumbled away, crying out and placing a hand to the new cut sliced in her cheek. Still against the wall, a red mark began to cloud her face as she suddenly mumbled what sounded like 'it was right, oh Mew, oh shit, it was right,' blood flecking from her lips.

Giovanni looked with distain at the blood speckled across the white of his shirt. He had seen many an Anti-Trainer succumb to torture, and even a few lose their mind, but never had he believed that Fiery Sapphire would become insane. Yes, he had seen her as an animal or Pokémon, but something…something very strong and determined had been burning inside her that suddenly was extinguished by him.

And the Boss smiled.

'_Look at yourself_!' The Voice suddenly screamed at Ellen, furious tone literally echoing through her head. '_You look pathetic! Wretched! Either stab him or run, Ellen! FIGHT AND DIE! GO!'_

Giovanni's smile was cut short as the girl followed her insanity's advice and blindly lunged forward, plunging the knife through fabric and flesh; although she could not tell where she had stabbed the Boss due to blood stinging her eyes. An agonized snarl escaped him, Ellen heard the gun clatter to the ground, and several oaths were hissed through clenched teeth.

Without wasting any time, she pulled the knife from what she believed was his shoulder and tore down the hallway, wiping the blood and tears from her eyes. Surely she would find a strong door she could lock herself behind and wait for the Pokémon, if she could make it, of course. It was obvious that she had done her leg even more damage, ripping a tendon or splitting open another string of muscle, and with her current state of mind…well…the only defense she had left was the knife. The blade had saved her twice now. Ellen slowly began to understand why Donovan liked the little toy so much; it was so deadly and versatile.

This chase continued for what seemed like hours. The sheer terror ripping through Ellen's veins was the only thing that allowed her to continue for the grueling time of pain and fright. There were no 'secret passages' or escape routes—only networks of hallways and rooms, as cold and cruel as The Voice, the only company she had.

She could no longer hear Giovanni running behind her, but a twinge of fear commanded her to carry on. Just as she did with every other doorway she saw, she quickly jerked into the upcoming entrance way and breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that she was one step closer to avoiding the Boss, and—

As her eyes traveled around the room, Ellen noticed something very interesting.

There were no other doors to run through.

All four, plaster walls, with the exception of the door she just came through and very small, sealed windows dotting one wall, were smooth and devoid of any escape routes. She was trapped. Trapped in a cage.

"Oh, shit," she found herself muttering, turning around only to find the threatening form of Giovanni entering the doorway, a triumphant, savage smile crossing his face. Across one of his shoulders was the jagged slash, the other a stab wound, both soaked with blood. "No, no, damnit…get away from me…I'll stab you…I'll stab you…"

His voice was unnaturally calm. "It seems you already have," he said, gesturing to the blood-crusted wound on his shoulder. He took a Pokéball from his pocket and tossed it up in the air a few times, watching Ellen's eyes flick up and down with every throw. "But you've been caught now; you're trapped. There are no exits. A _dead end_." Giovanni paused to smirk at her. "I've thought much about how to kill you, but this method seemed the most…_fitting_, per say."

The man threw the Pokéball onto the ground, but Ellen was terrified even before she saw the giant, hulking form of Rhydon erupt from the wispy matter stuff and part its sharp jaws, snarling. The beast blinked it's slanted, red eyes and looked around curiously, pupils shrinking in delight when it saw Ellen. Although mostly mindless, Rhydon seemed to remember how it had drilled a hole in the girl's torso as it uttered a whine.

"The reaction I had hopped for," Giovanni purred abruptly, throwing Ellen out of her shocked state. "I couldn't have Rhydon disappointed after the last acquaintance with you, Fiery Sapphire. Now, Rhydon, I am allowing you to eat her."

"What?" the Anti-Trainer whimpered, voice high and trembling. "You bastard, you're just trying scaring me. You didn't really say that, yuh-you _didn't_."

The Boss spat, "_Of course it's what I said_! You are going to be ripped to shreds! Rhydon is going to _devour you_! And you know what?" Grin taunting, he pulled a gold chain from his pocket. Ellen cursed when she realized it was the FS necklace. "I think I'll keep this as a trophy. Now, Rhydon!"

Rhydon slowly began to tramp forward as the girl screamed hysterically at her enemy, "YOU DIDN'T KEEP YOUR PROMISE! I NEVER SAW MY DAD! _I NEVER SAW HIM_!"

Giovanni's laughter could be heard as the beast swiftly brought its head to Ellen's height, its body surprisingly agile for such a bulky creature. It snapped at her almost playfully, a sickening wave of hot, rancid air washing over her. Before the girl could understand that Rhydon was playing a cruel game of cat and mouse, the beast raised its huge claw it the air and swung it against Ellen, sending her tumbling across the room.

A groan escaped as she rolled onto her back and felt blood seeping from her arm, her backpack falling from her back. She sat up, Rhydon's eyes meeting hers from across the room, and froze, trembling slightly. Ellen had never spoken to a Rhydon before, and had no idea if it preferred live prey to dead ones.

'_Play dead_?' The Voice chuckled, and repeated in mirth, '_Play dead_? _Ellen, this Rhydon wouldn't care if you were sitting in a wheelchair with two heads. Playing dead does not work for every monster, you know…you're only hope is to stab Giovanni…not that you could, anyway, weakling. Pah,_' it sniffed.

Torn between thanking The Voice for suggesting the plan and screaming at it for being so spiteful, she ignored her anger and rose to her feet. Rhydon noticed this sudden movement and tramped forward a few steps, vibrations rattling the floor. Like a bizarre dance, Ellen would quietly stumble back and the beast would stomp forward, inching closer with every movement. All three of the creatures seemed to become restless.

Yet when the Anti-Trainer glanced furtively at Giovanni, she was surprised to find him staring at her intently, coldly watching her every move. He knew too well what she was going to attempt, and he was certainly not going to fall for it. With victory so close in reach, there was no time for complications. It was a pity the room was so high up; Rhydon could use an earthquake if they were on the ground. Why, if he was the Rhydon he would have crunched her and been done with it…well, perhaps after prolonged torture, but still.

"I can't get to Giovanni," Ellen muttered to herself, but mostly to The Voice.

'_Wasn't much of a surprise to me_,' The Voice crooned pleasantly, '_I expected you to die, anyway. Well, I expected us to die, considering I'm part of you. But I don't really care, it's just so frustrating to council such a hopeless girl. Just…just try not to scream to loudly when both your legs snap in half._'

"That's _not_ gonna happen," she snarled, narrowing her eyes as Rhydon stiffened and lashed it's claw at her, the girl narrowly avoiding having her skull smashed like a melon. "Trust me, I know when people say shit like that, it ain't gonna happen."

'_Just like I told you that Giovanni appeared in front of you_?'

"Yeah, right. He snuck up on me while I was cryin'!"

'_Of course_,' The Voice taunted.

With surprisingly agility, the bipedal rhinoceros tore forward and charged at Ellen, lowering its head not to activate its drill but to bare its jagged teeth, snarling furiously. Just as it seemed Rhydon would catch her, she staggered out of the way only to have Rhydon simply whip around, the very tip of its tail thrashing Ellen's arm painfully.

She cursed bitterly as The Voice remarked, '_It won't be to long now_.'

"What?" she snarled.

'_Oh, it won't be to long until you're TORN APART LIMB BY LIMB._' The Voice erupted into, well, insane laughter. '_Eeheehee! Wait, if your arm rips off first, you'll be like Russell! Hilarious! No, wait, maybe you're head will be bitten off first and the only thing anyone will here is the delightful crackling of a breaking spine_!'

The Anti-Trainer was so transfixed by the horrible things insanity was listing that she did not see Rhydon raise its paw until it was right next to her, and at the time she was rolling across the floor, bruises already clouding her body.

'_Pay attention_!' The Voice chastised, a mocking, austere tone to its voice. '_Kaden wasn't alert, and look where that got him_!'

A deep, spasmodic pang of anger raced through her mind. "Yeah?" she hissed, backing up against a wall. "Yeah? Okay then. Where _did_ it get 'em? Come on, if you're so freakin' smart, tell me."

'_Hmmm…let me think…oh, yes. NO.'_

"What!?"

The Voice did not respond.

"I mean, you know, right?" A hint of curiosity slipped into Ellen's angered, hoarse tone. Surely The Voice would know, mainly because it seemed to know everything. "And you have to tell me, 'cause I'm you and you're me and…and…" she nervously began picking at her peeling nails, tearing one completely off without even blinking. "You gotta tell me…"

The Voice did not respond.

A pause. Rhydon had stopped moving and was scrutinizing the girl, who had taken to ripping parts of her fingernails off, her now pallid fingertips wet with blood. "Yuh-yuh need to tell me where my d-dad is. Ruh-really. Please…" her voice had grown to a stutter, and with one last request, she muttered, "T-tell me!"

'_No_.'

"_DAMNIT_!" she screamed.

Ellen slammed her head against the wall, the fingernail she was in the middle of tearing off ripping away with ease. Her head made a slight hollow noise as it hit the wall, followed by choked sobs and various, whimpering Pokémon cries. Blood poured forth from her ear, and again she took back her head and tossed it against the wall again, pain screaming through her mind. She imagined it to be The Voice screaming in pain, which caused her to grin hysterically before hearing an irate voice roar, "THAT IS ENOUGH!"

A powerful hand closed around her arm and jerked her away from the wall, her head wobbling in the air slightly. Giovanni stood before her, staring at the Anti-Trainer with both awe and anger, both of which do not mix too well. "I snapped you're spirit, didn't I?" he hissed through clenched teeth.

"Yeah." Ellen stared up at him for a bit before spitting blood at his face.

Grimacing, the Boss wiped away the blood with his sleeve. "And I'm pleased with that. Nevertheless, this is taking much too long. Even if you _have_ already suffered wounds…" he jabbed his finger at a cut on his enemy's face, opening up a fresh wave of blood.

"Damn you," she growled, wincing, as Giovanni fished a small bottle of clear liquid out of his pocket.

He unscrewed the cap with his teeth and spat the top onto the floor, tipping the bottle back and drinking half of it, the bitter, smooth liquid running down his throat. He held the bottle upright again. The Boss must have seen Ellen's odd look, because he simply said, "Raw Vodka. The best kind. Despite you being an Anti-Trainer, I suppose you deserve some." He held the bottle in front of her face.

The girl shook her head.

Giovanni raised in eyebrows in amusement. "None? Oh, well, too bad. I can't waste good Vodka."

With that, he jerked the bottle and poured the vodka onto her face, the alcohol seeping into her wounds and eyes, stinging viciously. Ellen yelped and began pawing at her face. The Boss bent down slightly and whispered in her ear, "Fatal mistake, Fiery Sapphire, fatal mistake." He then wrenched Ellen from the wall, kicking her good shin and tossing her aside, where her knees bucked and she tumbled to the ground. "Rhydon, if you _please_," Giovanni cried, directing the beast's attention to the Anti-Trainer. "If you fail to do away with her now…" Rhydon watched as its master pointed his revolver at Ellen's head.

Almost immediately, the beast was seized with fear of losing a meal and charged forward, pouncing behind her. Before she could scarcely turn around to see the horrible Pokémon, the snarling Rhydon lunged and caught hold of her in its jaws.

Immediately after waves of hot air smelling of death and blood choked Ellen's scream, the Rhydon did not crush her between its teeth but paused for a moment, almost deciding what to do with her. The girl had frozen completely; the only movement present was her shaking. Her legs were mostly trapped, as was half of her torso and back, but through a large gap in its teeth she could see Giovanni leering at her, and his smile was unlike any other she had seen. Impossible to describe, and very confusing to the girl.

In a matter of seconds, neither Giovanni nor anyone else mattered to Ellen when Rhydon bit down upon her body. Involuntarily, she erupted into a fit of screams, as both her legs snapped at once, not enough to cut off, but to have her bones pierce out of her flesh. The old, purple scars on her back burst open as new slices replaced them, blood streaming from them. Enthused by this, the bipedal Pokémon began shaking its head, snarling and tearing up its victim ravenously.

Ellen had been in great pain previously when Rhydon had attacked her, but this was much different. The pain before had been raw and cold, but now she felt as though the pain was completely surrounding her, prying her nerves apart, snapping bones…

As the beast thrashed its head back and forth, she was thrown about mercilessly. Gashes engraved themselves in her arms, legs, and torso. Her hand, knuckles white and drenched in blood, still grasped the knife and brandished it wildly. Her head cracked against a molar, sending a violent, strange jolt through her skull, and ultimately caused The Voice to rear up and begin cackling hysterically, sending its shrieking laughter pounding through her sub-conscious.

Her knife-wielding hand abruptly stopped flailing and sunk into something firm, Rhydon immediately going stiff. Although Ellen could not see this, she had stabbed the Pokémon in the jaw, the knife jammed between two serrated carnassials. When Giovanni had seen the red blood mixed with pink strings of tissue running from Rhydon's mouth, he had smiled and assumed it was Fiery Sapphire's bodily fluids. After coming to understanding, his smile died.

Realizing what had happened, with final shreds of strength the Anti-Trainer ripped the knife away and stabbed it in again randomly. It gnashed its teeth in anger, slicing a gash through one of her arms, and she was pushed deeper into the mouth. She could not even scream. The combination of the pain, laughing, and her scenario granted her not full-fledged horror but a wave of shock.

'_STAB IT AGAIN_!' agonizingly shrieked The Voice between laughs, but this time it was not musical in any way. '_OH GOD, OH SHIT! KILL IT! KILL IT! YOU'RE GOING TO DIE! KILL IT! MAKE IT STOP! THE PAIN, GODDAMNIT, THE PAIN_!'

'I'M TRYING,' she sobbed mentally, her mind garbled and choked. The tongue attempted to push her back into the gaping fissure that was the throat and simply swallow her whole, but she clung onto a yellowed tooth wildly and continued to stab. Blood and saliva drenched her clothing; the knife was fraught with small chunks of flesh.

Once more, the blade was stabbed, but a different reaction occurred. Rhydon could not endure the sharp, stabbing pains in its mouth for much longer and with its tongue sought the creature in its jaws, lowered its head, and tossed her across the room, whining. After licking its teeth clean of blood and other viscera, Rhydon cocked its head at Giovanni as if to ask, 'Why in bloody hell did you give me that thing to eat?'

Meanwhile, Ellen lay still, breathing heavily. Air, not fresh air, but still air, cleared her lungs. She wretched, the blood and saliva she had inhaled threatening to erupt again. Her body was torn with cuts and slashes, large teeth marks ripping holes in her jacket and shirt (which was still functioning as a shirt, thank Mew), and a small pool of blood began to surround her.

She had survived. Survived. It seemed impossible, but it was true. A spring of hope coursed through her mind. If she survived Rhydon, than she would obviously survive Giovanni!

The Voice gasped wildly and piped in a shaking, lamenting voice, '_You made it. Mew above, I thought we were going to die. You're not a useless bitch after all, I'll…I'll give you that_.'

With that she wearily opened her eyes and found herself staring directly at a blood-splattered wall. The Anti-Trainer blinked, frowning. How odd. She seemed to have only opened one eye without noticing. It must have been the aftereffect of the shock. She slowly raised her arm, surprised that it had not been broken but only twisted a bit, and felt her eye with her hand, wincing as her finger touched the sensitive eyeball.

She stiffened and rubbed her eyes, blinking again. Both her eyes were open, but she could only see from her right eye. "Wuha?" she muttered to herself disjointedly. "Wha? Whuzhappenin'? I…I can-tuh see…I can't see. Whuzhappenin'!?" She began pawing at her left eye madly, murmuring to herself as tears began streaming down her face.

'_Ellen_,' The Voice hummed, now totally calm. '_You've gone blind in your left eye. There is nothing you can do about it_.'

"HOW!?" the insane girl demanded, wringing her hands. "How'd tis happen to me!? Oh, shit…I can't see, I can't see, I can't see, I can't see—"

Her breath was cut off abruptly as something tightened around her neck. Ellen was jerked upwards, her crooked, snapped legs stumbling to keep balance and sending shockwaves of intense pain flooding through her body. Head lolling back, she quickly righted herself; her right eye widened in horror, giving her the macabre expression of a lunatic. Giovanni kept a firm hold on her throat and slammed her back against the wall, enraged that she had escaped and no less hurt his Pokémon.

Through clenched teeth, the Boss snarled, "You Anti-Trainer. You whore-dog. Tell me, how did you do it? How did you survive?"

Ellen's lips slid into a mad smile. "'C-c-cause Anti-Trainers don' die."

The Boss's expression was seized with alarm. "BE QUIET!" screamed Giovanni suddenly, striking her with the bulky revolver once more. Breathing heavily, he slowly spat, "Oh, no, no, no, no. You don't understand, little Anti-Trainer. I've hunted down your kind for…for twenty godamn years now, and what have I gained from it? Plenty, in fact. Pride, eminence…but I'm finally tired of it. You are the last I must deal with, and then I'll be free."

"Tired of it?" the girl sputtered, her smile faltering. "What 'bout us? You think you got it hard? Don' you get it?" She paused. "Anti-Trainers have been fighting against you 'cause you're a criminal! Do you t-think I'm tired of trying to bring down Team Rocket? Do you think I'm tired of getting beat up? You think _you're_ tired?"

Giovanni had allowed himself a neutral expression through speech. Fiery Sapphire spoke quite impressively for herself, but it took the Boss no more than two seconds to create a concrete response. The problem was, he could not say it to her without revealing weakness. Simply stated, he was not tired of Anti-Trainers but tired of Fiery Sapphire. Well, 'tired' was not even the word; it was more like 'frightened'. But, wait! He was not frightened of her as an Anti-Trainer. The thing that bothered him most was that…that because she was the offspring of Kaden, she became almost a second him. Metaphorically, of course. Still, it resembled an unending, vicious circle that would continue to burden Giovanni until he died. And then his son would be burdened by it. And the next. And, oh, it would continue forever. Godamnit.

"Yes, I do," the Boss finally snarled, his answer falling flat. His arm moved to jam the revolver on Ellen's forehead and shoot the six beautiful bullets into her skull, but on doing so, stopped. While the Anti-Trainer was mostly covered in scars and gashes, just below her collarbone was free of injuries, white as paper. Giovanni grinned mentally as his twisted mind thought of someway to inflict injury upon her. Abruptly, an idea sprung into his head.

Using his hurt hand and wincing as he did so, he transferred the gun to his other hand which was semi-choking Ellen, and ripped the knife from her grasp. Face breaking into a cruel smirk, he plunged the blade through the air, digging it into her collarbone.

Ellen yelped and braced herself for a wave of pain, but to her surprise, Giovanni began digging long, careful, measured cuts through her skin. He finished with a flourish, letting the last cut slice across her shoulder.

"There you have it!" the Boss cried mockingly, grinning as he took the knife away and wiped the blood from it on his coat. "Now you're Fiery Sapphire eternally!"

Feeling faint, Ellen slowly looked down at to see blood splattered against herself. With horror, she could slowly decipher the fine lines that were the cuts, forming two letters.

FS.

"You bastard," she hissed, and without warning, the girl's head lolled back. Surprised by this, Giovanni lost his grip on her throat. Her knees buckled and she fell to the floor, eyes closed, limbs limp. Her breathing ceased abruptly as the Boss stared at her, perplexed. There was such silence that from across the room, Rhydon uttered a pained whine just to break the quiet.

Surprised, confused, and hopeful, Giovanni crouched down in front of her and studied her beaten form intently. There was too much blood to know if she was still bleeding, and her skin was already so pale that he could not decipher any color change. She did not seem to be breathing, either, as realized when he placed a hand close to her nose and mouth. Not yet satisfied by these symptoms, he leaned forward to her ear and screamed harshly, jabbing the revolver at her head.

Fiery Sapphire did not flinch.

"My God," he said to himself, picking up one of her cold hands and letting it drop to the floor. His delight was shattered when this reminded him that he still had not checked her pulse, and gingerly picked up her hand again. Before placing his thumb on her wrist to test for a small beating, he murmured in very high hopes, "So be it, Fiery Sapphire. Dead. I kept my promise, didn't I? You're finally with your father."

As he tested for a pulse, Ellen's wrist jerked spasmodically out of his grasp and his face flooded with anger. He had been tricked. The girl's eyes opened abruptly and she sat up, expression one of horror. "WHAT!?" she screamed, lashing out wildly with her fists. She cracked her fist against Giovanni's face, jerking the snarling man backwards and tearing the knife from his grasp.

With power she had not had before, the girl took the knife, placed her palms against the wall, and jerkily stood up, her destroyed legs shaking and bumping into one another; she uttered a cry of pain. She stumbled forward, arms outstretched, and caught herself on a part of the wall closer to the now-standing Giovanni.

Her face turned to him and she cried angrily, "Wuh-wuh-what were you talkin' about? What were you takin' 'bout!? Wuh-what do you mean? My dad. Whatdya mean 'bout my dad? Tell me! Tell me!"

The Boss of Team Rocket simply stared at her.

Slowly, very slowly, his lips formed a thin smile, the red mark on his face contorting. Then he grinned. A grin so upsetting and mocking that Ellen knew the answer even before he had uttered it. His face reverted to extreme seriousness, and then he said, deadpan, "Kaden is dead. I killed him."

The girl's hand positioned on the wall slowly slid downwards, leaving a streak of blood in its place. Her knees wobbled.

Swallowing the blood that threatened to pour down her chin, turning her into a grisly marionette, she opened her mouth to say something. Before a word could take to the air, there were loud scuffling noises towards the entrance to the room and a team of varying figures appeared in the doorway. Charles, Feolan, Kyoshi, and Phil scrabbled through the doorway, Rhydon snarling with surprise on seeing the other Pokémon enter the room.

"Ellen ?" Charles gasped suddenly, his eyes widening in horror. He abruptly stopped moving, the other Pokémon slowing to a halt. A whine escaped him as he saw the gaunt, blood figure.

Phil wrung his hands desperately and squealed, "Oh, we tried to get here really, really, really fast, but there was this big room of Grunts and Mew and we fought them and then this Koffing starting spewing poison gas! And it was like, pfffttttboompppfffttt! And the Grunts started, like, shriveling up and losing their skin and it was all gross…but then we got out, and then we looked for you and Mew left, and now you're all bloody and I'm scared!" The Swampert hid his eyes.

"Oh, Mew," Kyoshi whispered, still both dazed from the Gengar's attack and the moment she had shared with Charles. "What happened…?"

"_Shit_!" cried Feolan. "SHIT! Wha…What the hell happened? This is crazy! What's going on? Ellen, Ellen, what happened to you? Oh crap, what—"

"_SHUT UP!"_

The Mightyena's words were cut off by an insane, shrieking scream. All heads turned to the trembling, wild-eyed mess that was Ellen, who repeated in a crazed whisper, "_Shut up_. Giovanni," she turned to him, what was left of her nails digging into the wall. She began to speak, but her voice and words failed to mature until there was a grating whisper of, "What?"

The Boss's dark eyes penetrated through the waiflike figure and into the wall behind her. Ellen did not urge him to speak, both enemies simply stared _through_ each other; the only thing that seemed to matter was spoken. "Kaden is dead," he repeated gravely, and with that, a thin smile crossed his face. "Ah, God, you don't know how long I've wanted to tell you this, just to see if you'd break. I can still remember when I killed him. There has not yet been a more wonderful memory than that. I can still picture it. He had come here alone, armed with only a gun. A gun, two Pokémon, and nothing else. Obviously, he was captured…"

And Giovanni began to recount the Head Anti-Trainer's brutal fall, the Pokémon and Ellen silent…

_Some say there is strength in numbers. Some say individuals are the key to victory. Alas, it was at that very time, in the huge building of the Team Rocket Headquarters, that numbers seemed to triumph. Perhaps if Kaden had brought more comrades—perhaps if he had prepared properly—perhaps if he had not even left his home, he would still be living, and yet then there would be no story. How strange it is that victory springs from tragedy, and from tragedy springs suffering…that soon reverts to tragedy again. But now we concentrate on an earlier tragedy then Ellen's own, one that seemed to shape the story itself._

_Obviously, there was strength in numbers. Right at that very second, Kaden had been overtaken by a large group of Grunts in passing. The Head Anti-Trainer did not have time to react; in the blink of an eye two Grunts had seized his arms, another had caught him in an iron neck hold, another had wrenched the gun from his grasp, and yet another stole both Pokéballs away. There was much struggling from Kaden until they had pinned him against the wall, although he still tried to slip from their grasps._

"_Who are you?" asked the Grunt pinioning one of his arms to the wall. The Grunt, obviously a newbie, earned unimpressed glances from the others._

"_He's an Anti—" hastily began another Grunt._

"_I'm an Anti-Trainer," Kaden interrupted coldly. "What did you expect? And besides, I've got twenty others crawling around here. It's only a matter of time before they finish off the other Rockets." He seemed very calm in the situation; he had been through worse, and lying could never hurt in his scenario. Intimidating the Grunts was easy. The higher ranked Rockets, though, were much harder to fool…_

"_We should take him to the Boss," one of them said, offering the words Kaden dreaded to hear._

"_Uh, right. Fine," the Anti-Trainer said almost jovially, testing how far he could lie. "Yeah, drag me to the Boss like the sniveling weakling that I am. Just know that as soon as I get there, I'll whip out a weapon and ki--"_

"_SHUT UP!" a Grunt screamed, holding up the gun to Kaden's eye. "One more word, and I swear…"_

_Another Grunt quickly grabbed his hand and gently forced it down to his side, saying, "I have a feeling the Boss would rather kill him."_

_Oh, of course he would, Kaden was sure of it. The sick man would prefer nothing other._

_The Grunts nodded to each other and with bitter roughness, tugged him through the hallway, gun digging between his shoulder blades. He was not sure how long they had been walking, but through the time he was constantly thinking of ways to escape. This was no longer a matter of just his life. He had a family to worry over. 'Stupid,' he thought angrily. 'This was freaking stupid. How was I supposed to do this alone? Oh, damnit. Stupid!'_

_Unfortunately and eventually, the group stopped in front of an oak door with a gold, rectangular plate stating 'Boss Giovanni; Giovanni of the Land.' Kaden frowned heavily, biting his lower lip. The title 'Giovanni of the Land' had annoyed him to no end. It was as if he had no last name. A Grunt briskly knocked on the door, asking, "Sir?"_

"_Come in," Giovanni's voice called from behind the door. Kaden's spirits dropped considerably. Damn._

_There door was opened to a slightly smaller room, and there was the Boss, seated at his desk, looking up from a book with mild interest. Once the presence of the Anti-Trainer registered in his mind, he jumped up, the chair he was sitting in clattering to the marble floor. It had been six years, yes, six years since he had violently injured the Head Anti-Trainer and prayed on Fredia. He had assumed that he had scared them away, from this was obviously not the case._

"_He's back," he muttered to himself, raising his eyebrows. The attention returned to his enemy. "You—I thought you had enough failures for a lifetime!" He pulled up the chair from the ground and pushed it back into place before fumbling for something on the desk. Moments later, his revolver appeared in his hand and he began to stride forward._

"_I couldn't go down that way," Kaden snarled listlessly. No matter how hard he tried, he could never appear as intimidating as the Leader of the Rockets. "I wasn't going to let you think you won when I could just get back up and fight. So I took a…break." He also did not mention that after the incident, Fredia had accompanied him almost everywhere; they had married and end up with a…surprise, of some sorts. A very wonderful one, but nevertheless a surprise. "And now I'm back, and I've got all the other Anti-Trainers creeping around. It's only a matter of time before—"_

_Giovanni punched him across the face, fury creeping into his expression. Kaden winced as his nose cracked and spurted blood onto the Boss's hand, much to his dismay. "Damnit. How dare you come back here. It would have been easier to simply accept defeat." He turned to the Grunts. "Where did you find him?"_

"_A, er, hallway, sir. Near the labs," a Grunt piped up._

"_The Labs?" The Boss said with mock surprise, turning back to his bleeding enemy. "Why would you go there?"_

'_Just to mix sulfuric acid and nitroglycerine_ _to create a concoction that could blow up the entire Headquarters,' Kaden thought to himself, but verbally he was speechless. "I…"_

"…_am going to die slowly and agonizingly," the Boss finished scornfully. He now addressed the Grunts. "Rockets." Most of them saluted him briskly. "Find the other Anti-Trainers. I'll deal with this bastard myself."_

"_Yes, sir/Of course/Although…/Right/But Boss, he IS dangerous—"_

_Giovanni suddenly held the gun up and shot the Anti-Trainer's arm, smiling thinly as Kaden cursed and clenched his teeth together, gasping. "And now he really isn't. Now, you must understand that this is particularly important to me, and if I fail to kill him, you will all be punished severely. Leave."_

"_Yes/Certainly/Yes, Boss/Right-o/Okay…" They freed Kaden from their grasps and with mutters of 'Glory to Team Rocket' and 'Hail Giovanni', they shuffled away, closing the door behind them._

_No longer burdened by the large mass of Rockets surrounding him, he screamed harshly, "I didn't come here so you could shoot me down, you arrogant bastard! I can here to end Team Rocket!"_

_The other man paused, gun aimed at Kaden. "Yes…but in coming here you do realize that while the Anti-Trainer population of Kanto has dropped, Team Rocket has grown considerably. Doubled, perhaps."_

"_Doubled?" he choked. Oh, it was obvious that the population of Anti-Trainers had been dropping for years. Gone were the days in which he had a committee almost as large and powerful as Team Rocket. Kaden had even seen his comrades die before his eyes—a man beaten to death by Grunts, Giovanni jamming his revolver in a woman's mouth and shooting her down the throat, a man who hung himself after fraternizing with the enemy in exchange for money…and many more. It was a wonder he had not gone…insane._

_But Team Rocket doubling it's members…and he alone in the middle of the building…he now knew what he was up against. He felt so cowardly at doing this, but he decided that he must flee._

_Whipping around to wrench the door open and bolt without interruption, Kaden lunged forward and punched his rival in the neck. He did not see Giovanni wretch or gasp for breath as he turned around, but as his hand clasped the doorknob, he felt a stinging pain in his back. The pain soon grew to a throb, and finally into a burning agony as his hand slumped from the door and his knees buckled, hitting the floor without a sound. He gasped as blood ran down his back and boiled with pain, feeling something digging close to his spine. Just as he realized that Giovanni had shot him, there was another click and another bullet dug into his side._

_No, no, he could not die. This could not be the end. He had people and things to take care of; he would not be snuffled out like a simple candle._

_Yet, he slouched over onto the ground, pained and turned to Giovanni who had a twisted grin on his face, marring his other features. Gods above, this brought him such pride. Kaden, 'Head of the Good and Justice-Prevailing Anti-Bastards' was huddled on the ground, clawing at the door pathetically._

"You see, Fiery Sapphire," Giovanni said, pausing in his recount. "You and Kaden have much more kinship than just father and daughter…both of you grant me a certain pleasure whenever you are in pain…perhaps it is that both of you gave me such grief.")

"_Get up, you dog," Giovanni urged mockingly, twirling the revolver slowly in his hands. "Has six years changed you? Weakened you? Unfortunately for you, I've become stronger."_

_Kaden barked furiously, clenching his fists until his knuckles were white, "I…uh…can't really fight with THREE DAMN BULLETS STUCK IN ME."_

"_Well then, it's no use if it's that little of bullets. Why not more?" Instantly, the Anti-Trainer had three more bullets lodged in his limbs, cruelly aimed at less-than vital spots so as not to kill him immediately. Blood spattered against the ground. He emitted a sound that was not quite a groan and not quite a scream, while his enemy placed the revolver on his desk. "I'm shocked how long it takes to kill you," the Rocket muttered under his breath, unaware that Kaden had heard every word, no matter how foggy it had seemed to him._

"_I'm n-not at all surprised that yuh-you'd be callous enough to do t-this," he rasped. "'Course, nothing is surprising with you…mutilation…torture…death. It's all the same with you, you're s-so—s-so—" He erupted into a small coughing fit. "Superior to us disgusting Anti-Trainers."_

_The Boss's forehead creased, but nothing more. His ego felt nothing more than a pinch, but it was the first time that an Anti-Trainer had taunted his extreme beliefs of Team Rocket being superior to other Kantonians. It was not a simply egocentric belief, Giovanni could list quite a few reasons why he and his followers could have risen above._

_Oh. Of course. Of all the Anti-Trainers, Kaden would be the best candidate for the argument. He relaxed slightly, although was still frustrated. "I only say that because it is true…"_

_Someone knocked on the door._

_He sighed and said authoritatively, "Come in."_

_The door swung open partly and with a dull thump collided with Kaden's body, the man coughing quietly. A familiar Grunt (the one who had so lovingly threatened Kaden with a gun) poked his head through the door space and peered at the bloody lump, distain crossing his face. "Er…Boss…"_

"_Just kick him out of the way." He walked back to his desk and sat down, fingering the neck of an empty wine bottle. Watching the Grunt with a smug sense of victory, a sharp, black boot attacked the Anti-Trainer and distributed him into a corner of the room, the man uttering but a groan._

_Post kicking, the Grunt straightened up and said to his leader wearily, "We couldn't find any of them. None." The Anti-Trainer's eyes widened in horror at being discovered in a lie, and his enemy's hand dropped from the wine bottle, pupils dilating. "We sent out six groups to find them and no one had any results. They're no other Anti-Trainers in the area, sir."_

"_Very well," he sighed, dismissing the Grunt. He sighed again, although it came out more like a guttural snarl. "So, I suppose I could kill you right now without any of the other Anti-Trainers realizing, hmm?"_

_Kaden did not answer._

_But Giovanni did not mind this at all. It was more of a metaphorical question, anyway. He tapped his fingers against the revolver eagerly. "How does it feel to know that both the beginning and the end of your Anti-Trainer career began with ME?" he demanded harshly, Kaden remaining silent. "ANSWER ME!"_

_Kaden did not answer._

"_Fine," he said coldly. He stood up from his chair again. Slowly, his picked up the empty wine bottle from the desk and smashed its neck against the table. The glass splintered with the sound of bells and the jagged edge of the bottle rose sharp and deadly. Both the revolver and the wine bottle were held in his hands, weapons of hate._

_As he was only half-way over to his enemy, Kaden suddenly turned his head to face him and rasped disturbingly, "When I die—oh, when I die…you'll die just as quick. The others'll find you. They'll hunt you down like you hunted us…and KILL you. And that'll be the end of frickin' Team Rocket. Yup, THE END."_

_Giovanni could take it no longer. Raising the wine bottle, he stalked forward. Perhaps a bit of torture would allow Kaden to understand that despite whatever he thought, Team Rocket would win._

(Giovanni paused from recounting the story and grinned, noticing how Fiery Sapphire's face had gone paper white, eyes wide, hyperventilating. "I will spare you," he said, "the detail of agony Kaden went through."

Ellen nodded slightly, mind frozen in horror.

"Let's just say that his overall appearance had changed grotesquely. For instance, I tore most of his face off. Oops, I wasn't supposed to say that!" He offered her a sympathetic look, obvious hatred boiling through. "Poor Anti-Trainer. Last one of your kind. You never expected to hear such an account, did you?"

"Nuh-nuh-nooo," he mumbled, although from her recent experiences with Giovanni, a disturbing feeling had been telling her that her father had not disappeared kindly.

He nodded. "I see. Pity. Anyway…")

_Half the ground had been coated with gore, pools of blood reflecting the bright lighting of the room. Both of Giovanni's hands were drenched in blood, and he abruptly turned on his heel to take Rhydon's Pokéball from his desk._

_Kaden, on the other hand…Kaden will not be described. It was terrible. Horrible. Only know that despite the grotesque mutilation, his mind still held semi-steadfast and unyielding._

_It was then that the Boss tossed the Pokéball to the ground and in a flurry of energy the huge, demonic beast that was Rhydon appeared. The Pokémon huddled a bit, cramped by the low ceiling and small room. It's nostrils flared when it smelled the rich, delicious scent of blood, and it began whining pitifully, pawing at the ground._

"_Rhydon," Giovanni commanded, pointing at Kaden. "Eat him."_

_Immediately Kaden knew it was THE END. What a stupid idea to start the group of Anti-Trainers! They were all going to die, anyway, just like him! Damnit, he would never see his family again! No! He could not die! Noo—_

_Tears streamed down what was left of Kaden's face as the Rhydon's jaws closed on and around him, their sharp points digging into his flesh, spurting blood. His gun wound throbbed, and the ridicules that Giovanni continued to scream at him were lost to his deaf ears. The jaws came down for the final time, crushing his head and spine with ease. Although it would have been nice to say that his last thoughts were of the family he was leaving behind, the truth was that his last thoughts consisted of how much pain and misery he was experiencing. Kaden Adler's mind (both mentally and physically) was then mashed to a pulp; his fate decided. The Anti-Trainer was dead._

_Rhydon crunched the destroyed mass of Kaden, and finding the skull too disagreeable, spat the cracked, jagged bone onto the floor. The skull, it's crushed eye sockets with only a faint pink rim of tissue to declare it's owner's lost life, (because Giovanni had scraped most of Kaden's skin off before hand) rolled disjointedly for what seemed like hours and finally came to rest at a far wall, teeth set in a halo of pain and anguish._

_Giovanni laughed quietly as the blood rained from the Pokémon's maw, horrible snapping sounds echoing throughout the room. Thus, it was THE END…_

"There you have it." Instantly, reality was upon them again.

The young Anti-Trainer reacted to this first amid the silence. She did not cry, but a short, choked sob escaped her. With a quick, jerky movement, she pounded her forehead into the wall, wracking sobs suddenly bursting forth.

_Dead_. _Dead_! Kaden Adler, Head of the Anti-Trainers, her _father_, was gone. How ironic it was that she had been so eager to find him; how ironic it was that Giovanni had murdered him. Everything seemed fit together like a brilliant but devastating puzzle, bent on teasing the challenger until, with horror, the person realizes that the completed puzzle resembles their greatest fears. She felt so stupid. Throughout her journey, secret hints had been whispered through numerous scenarios and intertwined with the molding of the disappearance. And what did she do? Ignore them. Mishear them. Think them unimportant.

'_Giovanni shot Kaden and then killed him with his Rhydon, Ellen! You're such a unique girl, but I just wanted to tell you that your daddy is dead and nothing more than a digested piles of bones. Isn't that nice? A Rhydon ate him alive. Heehee, Giovanni shot you, too! Wouldn't it be funny if you had the same fate as your daddy? Wouldn't it be nice to know that your body was mashed up exactly as his was?_ _Kaden is dead, Ellie-girl. Your daddy is long gone. You can never talk to him again, or see him again, or hug him again, or kiss him again, or play with him again, or be with him again. Those times when he read you stories and played catch with you like every other goddamn kid on the block are past, sweet, ugly, stupid Ellen. You're a big girl now, right? You can deal with it. Just try not to cry when you have nightmares of being shot and eaten by a Rhydon. Try not to break down. Try to be sane. Go ahead, don't go crazy_.'

The room seemed to crumble around her, crashing down upon her jumbled thoughts. She fought to disagree with herself. Yes, she had often considered it…but she never truly believed that he had died. Or…or she never _wanted_ to truly believe. It seemed unfeasible until now that Kaden could die. He had been so…alive and untroubled, or at least what she remembered of him or what she had been told. The girl supposed that there had to have been a much different side of him when fighting against Team Rocket. He must have been much more focused, serious…and she constantly reminded herself that Kaden had indeed killed Grunts to destroy Team Rocket. Perhaps she felt the same way of he had, captured in the heart of Team Rocket…

But it was impossible to describe how Ellen felt at that very moment, surrounded by both friends and enemies. From her forehead, blood trickled down her face and into her mouth as her lips formed a bitter, deranged grin. There was no mirth in the chilling grin, though; it was purely unintentional. In her mind, there was not a feeling of emptiness, but rather a deep, gnawing pain of knowing that she would never see her father again, no matter how hard she looked.

Well, there was one way to see him.

She could die.

Her grin twitched slightly before she sighed shakily, turning away from the wall. Gathering enough reason to face reality again, she looked at Giovanni, and everything suddenly locked into perspective. He, the very criminal in front of her, had destroyed almost everything she had cared about. It was as if the Boss was playing a sick game: how many lives can I ruin in the course of twenty years? Let's count.

Rage boiling inside her, Ellen began to form the most horrible of words to scream out at her enemy when Giovanni tossed the FS necklace at her feet. She stopped, looking down before quickly swiping her hand down to clutch it greedily as the Boss spat, "I might as well give this to you now. I don't know why you love it so much, considering it's a trophy."

"A trophy?" the girl's head snapped up from gazing at the necklace, her eyes scorching.

He smirked, chucking. "Yes. That necklace wasn't Kaden's, it was mine. After Kaden's untimely end had been met in the form of Rhydon, my Pokémon had spit out his skull." Ellen's face turned even paler; her mouth opened slightly in shock. "Naturally, I wanted something to commemorate the occasion, and what better to make a trophy. So, I took a chunk of the bastard's skull, had it carved into the shape of two letters, plated with gold, and strung on a chain. Originally I planned to hand-deliver it to Fredia, but…" he furrowed his brows at Ellen. "It disappeared before I had the chance."

The girl stared down at the necklace in her palm, horror flooding her mind. Surely…surely that couldn't be. Surely Giovanni was now lying to torture her even more. The FS on the necklace was thick for a pendant…and the gold plating did allow it to dent…furiously, she scratched away at the gold with one of her few remaining fingernails only to discover a hard, yellowish-white material in the center. She screamed, horrified, and threw the necklace to the ground. Imagine—she had a piece of her father near her for the whole journey.

Her mind was now fully corrupted by anger, and she whipped to Giovanni and shrieked, "_YOU BASTARD! You…you…DAMN YOU! HOW COULD YOU DO SOMETHIN' LIKE THAT!? You killed him. YOU MURDERED MY DAD! YOU KILLED MY FRIENDS. YOU RUI—_"

Grinning, the man smoothly held the revolver up and shot her in the shoulder.

The speech stopped abruptly, save for a final mumbling of, "No…No…hurts…" Ellen doubled over, clutching her shoulder as blood blossomed over her shirt and onto her arms. Her knees buckled and she fell to the ground, curling up into a ball, shutting her eyes, and breathing slowly and quietly. The pain was long and raw, seeming to course through every nerve in her body. She almost did not hear Giovanni's laughter over the throbbing in her ears.

From across the room, the Pokémon still stood in a stupefied state from hearing so much. Feolan quickly tore himself from shock and howled, "ELLEN!" With rapid speed, he bound over the Boss and sunk his teeth into his arm, tearing wildly at him. He screamed and kicked the Mightyena in the chest, causing him to leap back with a yelp but just as quickly charge forward again to attack. With a sudden movement, Feolan bit Giovanni's hand and the gun flew from his grasp, sliding across the floor to stop next to Ellen.

At the scratching metallic sound of the gun skidding across the floor, the girl opened her eyes to find the revolver only an arm's length away from her, tarnished with age but nevertheless dangerous. She stared at it, still wincing at the pain, and very slowly took her arm from clutching her shoulder and reached out to grasp the weapon. Gradually she eased herself from her lying position so that she was sitting up, and tightened her grasp on the gun, aiming it at Giovanni. A smile laced with craze and hatred crossed her face.

Both the Boss and Feolan froze as the girl gasped, "Feolan, get away from him."

The Mightyena stared at her, eyes widening in disbelief as he nevertheless slowly backed away. "Huh?"

"I-I wanna kill him myself."

"Ellen," Charles began, spreading his wings to fly forward. "No, this is…this is crazy. There're easier ways out."

"_No_!" The dragon stopped abruptly as she turned away from him and direction her attention to Giovanni. "M-move and I'll shoot you. Have your R-rhydon attack any of us and…I'll s-shoot you," she said coldly.

He pressed his lips together tightly, looking away as Ellen began fumbling with the mechanisms of the gun. What a pathetic way to die. Shot by an Anti-Trainer. "Wait," the Boss said soothingly, turning back to her. His voice had an odd, comforting quality to it. "You don't know how to the shoot the gun…it may misfire and kill you. You don't want that to happen, do you? After all you went through…" The girl paused and looked up as he began to walk forward. "It must be very painful for you now, am I right? I could finish you off very nicely, end all the pain. Just a quick bullet to the head and peace…and you can spend an eternity with your family and friends…"

"Shut up!" she cried, madly waving the gun at him. The man's eyes popped open and he stumbled back, flinching.

Yes, it was true that she had no idea how to shoot the revolver, but she would force herself to learn soon enough. Ellen continued to fumble with the revolver, finger never leaving the trigger. For a moment, a thought ran through her mind: should she really kill Giovanni? Dozens of Grunts could barge in and…it would be the end of her. She imagined what Kaden would say, she imagined him at her shoulder, saying, 'do what you think is best, and—'

'_Kaden would never say anything like that_!' The Voice cut in furiously, booming and grim. '_He would obviously tell you to kill Giovanni, because…oh, look. Giovanni killed Kaden! Either shoot him or have him shoot you! Make up your mind, Ellen! I have to say, though, the last one sounds very appealing._'

Ellen ignored the insanity and looked to her Pokémon, eyes questioning. Charles seemed eager to help and comfort, wanting to end the venture peacefully, Kyoshi seemed undetermined, her whole life balanced upon wanting to kill or let live, Feolan appeared livid and snarling, itching to kill and take revenge, and Phil was seated on the ground, frightened and crying. It almost seemed as if their personalities had altered and composed her own, and her own had altered and composed theirs. They were almost kin, the only friends and family she had left…they would know what to do.

The Voice screamed, '_DECIDE_!', and sent shockwaves of pain through her head.

Immediately she screamed an answer back, her anger boiling and twisting to the point of rage corrupting her entire being. Ripping her sight from the Pokémon, she turned to Giovanni and aimed the revolver at him, both hands gripping the gun compulsively. Her eyes flickered from the gun to the Boss randomly, breaths quick and spasmodic. The Anti-Trainer's mind was filtered of all other thoughts, The Voice dissipated, pain floated away, fatigue dissolved. There was only a single thing on her mind, something so indescribable that it could only be labeled all-consuming rage. With a final burst of energy, her mind screamed,

_SHOOT._

_THE._

_FUCKING._

_BASTARD._

And she did.

The gun fired with a sharp bang, the backlash of the shot causing Ellen to violently jerk backwards. As she jerked back, she blindly fired twice, the bullets imbedding themselves in a wall. Seized with sudden fear, sickness, and shock, she turned away and began retching, finally vomiting blood before dropping the gun to the ground. Wiping blood from her mouth with what was left of her sleeve, she turned to see Giovanni, staring at her furiously. The Boss pawed at his side, a blood-darkened stain on his already dark suit. With a twitch of a scowl, he slowly collapsed onto the ground, gritting his teeth.

Both enemies lay still on the ground, silence crashing through the room. There was a pause that seemed like a lifetime before Rhydon snorted quietly, bothered, and curled its tail around itself. Feolan whimpered slightly and trotted forward to Ellen, nudging her face with his nose. The other Pokémon followed suite.

"She's dead," Phil whined automatically, earning a growl from Feolan.

"No frickin' way," he said, nudging her a bit harder until his snout was stained with crimson. "If…if that's true then I'll rip Giovanni apart."

With that, he inadvertently jabbed his nose into Ellen's eye and there came a sharp hiss of pain or annoyance, Feolan could not decide. Her eyes opened abruptly, glassy and wide, and she gasped, "I'm still here. I'm still here. Oh, shit, it hurts."

"Ellen," cried Charles, surprised, "Oh, Mew—" his expression tightened suddenly, remembering that the kitten had known Kaden to be dead all along. "Ho-oh above, what happened to you? Here, here, the gun wound needs to stay elevated, I think…no, what about this gash? No, and what about this—damnit!" Overwhelmed by the multiple injuries she had accumulated, he simply extended one wing and took Ellen's arm in his claw. "Just grab my wing and pull yourself up, and we can all fly away…" he placed her hand on his wing and it fell to the ground limply.

The Anti-Trainer tilted her head to look at her arm indifferently, looking back up at the ceiling again. "Kyoshi," she muttered, "can you do anything 'bout…'bout…"

The Persian knew even before she finished the sentence, and sighed. Charles stroked her head comfortingly. "No. It's…a very long story…but to make it short, I just can't heal anymore. I'm so sorry…"

"Really?"

"Yes."

Ellen paused and looked away. Even now, when pain had corrupted her and the blood washing away costing her life, she was still in disbelief that she had shot Giovanni. Killed, she did not know, but certainly wounded and entitled to die. It was then, at that bittersweet moment, that the stupid girl realized something novel. Without Giovanni, without the driven, confident leader of the Rockets, Team Rocket would collapse without a Boss. Even if they did try to elect a new one, he or she would not be the same, it would still crumble. He was the strong point, the glue that held the Team together; without him, Team Rocket would never rise again. It would be finished. Through. _Finished_.

"I did it," she gasped.

There was silence for a moment. Feolan was the first one to speak as he asked softly, "_What_?"

"I did it," she muttered again, her voice a strange combination of fatigue and joy. "I...my job as an Anti-Trainer was to defeat Team Rocket. And…and guess what? I think I did it. I think I finished. I think _we_ finished. The Anti-Trainers would be proud. Right? Dad would be _real_ proud. Right? Right?"

The pleading in her voice was so strong that Charles could not help but agree. "Of course," the dragon cooed soothingly. "You couldn't be more right."

Ellen closed her eyes. "That's good. I'm gonna see him soon, anyways."

"_What_?" Feolan asked again in shock.

"I'm guess finished. Team Rocket is going to disband and the only Anti-Trainer in all the regions is done what she wanted to do. I guess I can die now…everything hurts so much…I ready to die, anyway. I don't wanna leave you guys…but I wanna see mom…and dad…and Russ…and Marylyn…and Miguel…and Samara…Hell, look at me." She laughed bitterly to the horror of the Pokémon. "All the pain ends, doesn't it? Yeah…"

"Don't say that!" Phil yipped. "Don't say that! Just don't! Everything is going to be fine!"

"Everything didn't turn out fine for _dad_!" Ellen spat weakly, dissolving into small, crazed giggles. Her eyebrows raised in jollity, eyes flicking to each of her worried friends. "Didja hear what happened to him? _Didja_? Yeah, I guess all Anti-Trainers meet bad ends…and this is just another one! I mean, but my dad…_wow_. Wow! That really sucked. Yeah! It had to happen to him! It could of happened to anybody else, but _noo_…it had to be _my godamn dad_!" She pounded her fists on the ground furiously, breaking out into anguished howls.

"Oh no…" muttered Kyoshi, turning away. She looked around the room, furrowing her brow, before calling mentally, '_MEW!'_

"You rang?" A pop of light erupted in the air and the Psychic kitten appeared directly in front of her, his torso coated in overlapping layers of dried and fresh blood. "What the hell do you want? I was attending…uh…important matters. Yeah, like eating Rocket scientists. _God_."

The Persian stared at Mew, disgusted, before shaking her head and gesturing to the sobbing Anti-Trainer on the ground. "As you can see, Ellen isn't in very good shape…she hasn't told us much, but we know she was shot in the stomach, leg, and...and…well, you can see the damage."

"And she just found out her father was brutally murdered by Giovanni and his Rhydon," Charles added with a hint of malice in his voice, directed at Mew. "I assume you _didn't_ know that." The feline shrugged innocently, not a bit of expression crossing his face.

"Uh, yeah." Mew blinked at Ellen, cocking his head slightly. Moments later he declared, "Nothing I can do. She's gonna die. Can I, like, eat her now?" With this statement, the girl's eyes shot open and she made a futile effort to crawl away, only to be stopped by Charles who calmed her a bit.

"Mew!" Feolan growled. "You're supposed to _help _us! Aren't you the God of Kanto or somethin'!?"

"Yeah, but—"

"_Then don't you control…I dunno…FATE or somethin'_?"

"I never said I could control fate," Mew snapped irritably. "_God_, what made you think that?"

Charles muttered under his breath, "Your ego."

"Hey, shut up! You're just jealous of my…_awesomeness_." Mew smiled to himself and waved in Ellen's direction with his paw. "Sorry, nuthin' I can do about her."

"Ya know?" Feolan said to Mew, baring his teeth, "I have feeling you're not as powerful as you say…"

"Yeah? _God_."

"_Yeah_. In fact, I don't even think you're the God of Kanto."

Phil gasped. "Dude! Feolan just told God he wasn't God! Wait, what?" He rubbed a fin on his head. "Urgh…confused…"

The kitten's eyes widened and he sputtered madly, "Wha? Huh? Wha—that's crazy! You're as whacked as her!" He flung his paw at the Anti-Trainer. "I mean, maybe I was telling a _teeny, tiny_ fib, but—"

"Oh? Lying? You were lying about being God?" Kyoshi asked quietly, menace edging her tone.

"No. No. Duh. No. Okay…maybe. Maybe. Just maybe…" he added in a small voice, "But I'm still a Legendary…"

Charles threw his claw in the air in exasperation, not daring to look at Mew. "Wonderful. Utterly Wonderful. This contradicts all reality. We have no God….wait, if you're not God, then who is?"

"Don't ask me!" snapped Mew, instantly reverting to his old self. "_God_. I mean, I was a really strong and popular Legendary, so I guess people started assuming I was totally awesome. And, like, God. So I played along with it, cuz who doesn't love being famous? Or infamous?"

Ellen finally sat up and blinked a bit, muttering, "Me. With Team Rocket…" obviously not in any condition to interact, she slowly lowered herself in a lying position again.

The feline narrowed his eyes. "Geezuz, Betty! Don't make me shut you up myself…" The Psychic levitated over to her, looking down at her with agitation. He planted his paws on his hips and would have hit her upside the head if not for seeing something familiar in her hand. "What's that?" He pried her hand open and stared at the FS necklace. "Whoa! Talk about nostalgia. I've seen that before…hey, wait! I know. After Clayton kicked the bucket, pushed up daisies, ya know, Giovanni made that…yeah, I remember! I felt real bad Clayton died, cuz I sort of helped...so I took it from Giovanni and I was all like, 'what am I gonna do with this?' and then I was like, 'Oh yeah, what do you do with dead people's families? You give 'em stuff. Like flowers.' But I didn't have any, so I caught Clayton's scent off this and followed it all the way—"

"To Fuchsia City?" Ellen gasped suddenly, now sitting bolt upright. Charles also looked uncannily alert.

Mew raised his eyebrow at her. "Uh, yyeeaaahhh…Fuchsia City. So I just snuck into the house and tossed it in a random drawer. Easy as crap. I mean, pie."

"The fuzzy sweaters!" the Charizard gasped. "Ellen—remember when we were just starting out—" a small smile appeared on his face at remembering. "And we left you house, we found the necklace in a pile of fuzzy sweaters…"

"I could have known all along," the girl mumbled, sighing. "I could have known. 'Course, I'd probably be depressed if I knew back then…but now I guess its okay."

"Okay?" Phil squeaked. "How can it be oka—"

"_Rhydon_…"

Phil's shrill and childish voice almost completely drowned the other voice away, but even the slightest rasp of it sent the Swampert into silence.

Giovanni had not yet died. His deathly pale form seemed to tremble and waver as he propped himself on his hands and said in a louder tone, "Rhydon, rock throw." With that, he collapsed.

"Uh-oh," Phil said.

The bipedal monster trampled forward, taking time to carefully avoid Giovanni, and in its mad charge created a large rock between its two front claws. Before Rhydon flung the huge rock at the Pokémon, they scattered. Charles took Ellen by the arm and bodily threw her out of the way, screaming as Rhydon threw the boulder at the Charizard. The dragon gasped in horror and prepared to take flight when the boulder collided with his wing in a sickening crack. He snarled and stumbled away, his wing jerked at an odd angle. "_No!_" he screamed mentally, and then roared, "I'm impaired, I'm impaired! I can't fly, we're stuck!"

"Calm down!" Feolan cried, sternly glaring at the trembling Charizard, although his anger faded when he saw the bleeding wing. "Listen, if we can close enough to Rhydon like Phil…" he jerked his head at the Swampert who was banging his fins on Rhydon's side.

"_DIIIIIIIEEEEE_!" he screamed shrilly, revealing his tiny sharp teeth to gnaw on the unaffected rhinoceros.

"But he isn't doing much," Charles said.

"Charles!" From behind him, Kyoshi trotted up and worried looked at her two comrades. For a bit longer her eyes lingered on the Charizard, and she nuzzled his arm softly. "I hope—"

"EEEEWWWWWWW," Phil screamed, pausing in the middle of hitting the enemy with his fin. "LOVEY-DOVEY! EWWW- wah!" Rhydon took this moment to raise its great claw and pummel the Swampert with it, sending him screaming, bleeding, and flying across the room to tumble into wall, where he began to cry.

"Stupid," Feolan muttered to himself. A low chuckle wavered in the air, and the Mightyena perked his ears up. "Who's there?"

"Marlon Brando." Mew appeared with a pop. "Mew, you idiot!" _God_, you're dumb. Wow. I can't believe you didn't notice I was gone. Ha-ha, believe me, I'll be laughing my head off when you guys die."

"And I'll be laughing when Team Rocket captures you again." Kyoshi frowned at her fellow Psychic.

"SILENCE, YOU!" boomed the kitten, his fur bristling up. "I hate you all! Go to hell, all of you shit-heads! Now that you know I'm not God—uh—_I hate you_! _God_. I've never seen a stupider bunch. Maybe I should just kill you—" A boulder collided with Mew.

The two went flying and crashed into a wall, the huge rock crushing Mew. With an angry roar, her lifted the boulder away from himself and tossed it to the ground. His torso had been crushed inward like a broken egg, blood splashed against his pink fur. There was a gash on his head, and his arms twisted and twitched eerily. He paused to heal himself, but before he could do so—and no one knew if this was good luck or bad—another boulder came flying at him.

"_God_," he muttered.

The huge rock and the disturbed Legendary came together with a terrific cracking sound. Kyoshi gasped (Charles and Feolan held no sympathy for the unsavory character) at the prospect of Mew being viciously pummeled. Once again, the grotesque feline tore the boulder away. For a split second, he glanced at Charles, Feolan, and Kyoshi in a plea of sympathy, but to no avail. Either Mew had been much too evil or they were too shocked to react, because when the final boulder hit, no one moved.

Mew was crushed instantly, splattering him like a fly. His innards splashed against the wall, blood flecks flew into the air, bones splintered. Charles turned away, sickened, as the rock fell from the wall to reveal the splat that was Mew. Seconds later, Mew the Splat began sizzling as if it was on fire—the gore shriveled up into a small pile and fell to the floor, when suddenly it twisted and morphed until it became…

…a squirming pile of maggots.

Kyoshi went wide-eyed. "Oh my…Mew—did Mew just…"

"He's dead." The Mightyena nudged the maggots with his nose, recoiling slightly.

Suddenly, the maggots began writhing violently, and a shriek of laughter echoed through the air. On the other side of the room, Rhydon was enveloped with a thick cloak of Dark Matter. As Mew's last vengeance, they Dark Matter crushed the Pokémon to dust, literally gray dust accompanied by red and pink entrails and a fresh spill of blood.

Yes, Mew had indeed passed on. The Ex-God of Kanto was dead, and so was Rhydon.

Meanwhile, Ellen had been thrown to the side by Charles. She rolled across the blood-slicked floor, groaning as she slowed to a halt. Her right eye focused slowly, the left forever consumed in darkness.

"Afraid?" asked a snarling yet weak voice. "Trying to ignore what frightens you?"

She knew the voice instantly and turned her head to see Giovanni, pale as a ghost, with not a smile but a wide-eyed expression of pain. She frowned at him, but smirked at his state. "You don't scare me at all. I'm just blind in one eye. Your Rhydon did it."

The Boss raised his eyebrows. "How _sad_. I couldn't care the slightest…actually, you won't be needing your sight. You're going to die soon, anyway."

"Shut up! Shit, you're like a broken record. Who says, anyway?"

"Oh, you know. Fate says. Another Rocket will find me, and after I'm healed you'll die. I was always mean to survive. To rise above and become a great leader. It would make things so much easier. I could so easily crush any rebels like you."

While Ellen concentrated on his egotistical speech, Giovanni slowly extended his arm in the direction of the revolver, which was lying on the ground. His hand barely reached the gun—damn. When he prepared to literally drag himself to the gun, the Anti-Trainer seized his arm and jerked it back, extending her leg to kick the gun away. The Boss freed his arm from her grasp and cursed in fury.

"God almighty!" he snarled. Very slowly, he sat up, clutching his wound. It was as thought he wanted to be superior even in death. He stared at his enemy coldly.

She returned his glare, but eventually turned her head to see Charles. She called out to him, and he slowly walked to her in an oddly chilling way. "Mew is dead," he said somberly, taking no interest in the Boss.

"What?"

"Dead." He pointed over to the small pile of maggots. "That's all that's left of him…" he sighed and shook his head. "Sorry, just a bit of shock. Now, what's wrong?"

"Is he going to kill me?" the Boss asked gleefully. "Well, I insist, go ahead. Let me warn you, though. Kill me and face my Rhydon."

Charles blinked at him as Ellen said, "I want you to set the building on fire. Burn it down." The Charizard appeared a bit sheepish that he had not thought of that before, and turned away.

"NO!" Giovanni screamed suddenly, lunging at the weaker of the two. His strength seemed to flood back into him as he rose to a hunching stand, using terrific brute force to kick the Anti-Trainer away from him. Just as the dragon turned back to see him, the man stumbled over to the revolver and fell to the knees, breathing heavily and snatching the gun only to find it unloaded.

Spiting and cursing madly, he fumbled for another round of bullets in his pocket and while loading them, moaned, "Rhydon! My Rhydon, dead! Damnit! My weapon—my glorious weapon, gone! So many lives taken, so many victories won—dead! Arg…" He slowly slumped to the floor and collapsed with a groan.

Charles quickly helped Ellen to the other Pokémon and supported her with his arm. He told them of the girl's plan to light the building aflame, and most of the Pokémon, desperate, agreed. After all, the Charizard did confirm he could still fly.

"But…whadya we do with this shitbag?" The Mightyena rounded on the Rocket, unaware that he was still fumbling with the gun. "I say we kill 'em."

Kyoshi frowned. "Let's have Ellen decide—it's only just. Ellen?"

The Anti-Trainer bit her lip in thought. Would it be overkill to destroy an already dying man? She bided her time by saying, "Wait. I need my necklace and knife." The two implements were only a bit away, closer to Giovanni. Before anyone could protest, she painfully hobbled away, saying, "Charles, I think you should start the fire now…"

"Oh, right!" A tiny flame appeared on one of his claws, and he held it to one of the wooden pillars against the wall. After a moment, flames began to flicker and continued to grow. '_Hell,_' he thought, '_why not burn the whole place down_?' His inner pyro took control, leading him to blow a fantastic burst of twisting flame upon the wall, the plaster catching immediately and transforming into roaring flames.

Just after Charles had said, 'Oh, right,' Ellen slowly approached her two dearest belongings: the FS necklace and the deadly knife. She took her time in going, even when she caught scent of smoke.

'_Kill him_!' The Voice pleaded. '_Please, kill him! You know it's the only way to truly win! Stab him_!'

She was coming closer to her belongings. "I don't know…"

'_You should know_!'

"Shut up!" she groaned. The Anti-Trainer carefully scooped the FS necklace off the ground. With the other hand she took the knife, running her finger along the blade. She was so absorbed in thinking that she barely heard the noise. Looking up from her thoughts, her eyes dialated to pinpoints, her heart began beating rapidly as she saw the danger in front of her: Giovanni was pointing the revolver at Ellen with a shaking hand, with a chilling, literally blood-drenched smile.

The next scene happened so fast. Perhaps it was meant to occur, perhaps not. It was fate.

"It will end," Giovanni said. The trigger locked into position. There was a sharp noise. Smoke trickled from the revolver.

The girl collapsed, blood pouring from her stomach. She grit her teeth madly, gasping for breath. Her senses dulled, replaced by whole and sharp pain. Several choking noises erupted from her throat and she wretched, vomiting blood. Finally, she was still.

"ELLEN!" Phil screamed, running over to her in panic. The Swampert seized her arm and began shaking it violently, shrieking with tears. "Wake up, wake up! Ellen! _Plleeeeaaassseee_!" Kyoshi carefully pulled him away, nuzzling him gently. "She can't die! That's not…not fair!"

"Phil," the Persian cooed, "We don't know if she's really dead…" She blinked back tears, slowly creeping over to the Anti-Trainer. So much blood, so many wounds…

"She's not playing dead now," Giovanni said, joy bubbling in his voice. "Dead! Ah, God, thank you! Fiery Sapphire is—"

"I've heard enough from you!" roared Feolan, muzzle contorting into a crazed snarl as he slunk over to the Boss. The man waved his gun at him, madly firing bullets it all directions. The Mightyena was too angry to be frightened, though, and leapt at him. Giovanni made haste and dragged himself away, but Feolan was much faster. He tore his claws across his side, ripping from black suit to muscle. Raw pain flooded through his body. Screaming, he beat the gun against the wolf's front legs and shot the gun, the bullet skimming his fur and leaving a large gash. He yelped, jumping back in pain and surprise.

The man roared with laughter. He howled, "Go ahead, kill me! I've already won! I've killed all that I've wanted to kill, why not end with me?"

Ellen groaned and curled up, clutching her stomach. "Ahhhh…ooooww…Kyoshi? Phil?"

"Ellen!" the amphibian cheered, just as a burning rafter dislodged from the roof and smashed upon the ground, sending the Swampert shrieking until Charles grabbed his shoulders and shook him fiercely. "Phil, quiet!" He did so. "We need to leave…"

Feolan said, "But what about Gio—"

"Never mind him! Come on, if we want Ellen to survive…!"

The flames spread higher and higher, roaring with evident pleasure at burning up the Headquarters. Charles lowered his back to make a flat surface, and Kyoshi and Feolan took Ellen's shirt in their teeth and slowly pulled her onto the dragon's back.

As they were frantically doing so, Giovanni's voice screamed through the fire. "OH, GODAMN! HAHA! Look at this! LOOK AT THIS! You think you can defeat Team Rocket with just THIS!? HA! We'll rise again with a NEW Team Rocket!"

Strangely enough, and perhaps it was her anger that drove Ellen to yell this, she howled, "Yeah, right! The only reason Team Rocket was so powerful was because you were driven by hunting Anti-Trainers! And now…we're all dead!"

"No!" Phil cried. "Ellen, hurry up!"

"You're life doesn't have a purpose no more!" she continued to gasp, pausing to cough. "You're un…unmotivated!"

Giovanni's face was ghost white as he rose to glare at her—but his glare was…frightened? "T-that's not true!"

Kyoshi quickly tried to usher the group along as the fire heightened. "Please, can we leave?"

"Yeah it is!" The Anti-Trainer screamed.

Crazed anger in his eyes, the Boss stumbled through the flames like a demon and lunged at Ellen only to meet thin air and drop to his knees as the Charizard rapidly spread his wings, pushing off from the ground and into the air. The girl was met with a burst of speed and she clung onto Charles's shoulder with shaking fear.

Closing his eyes, he braced himself and flew through the window, glass splintering everywhere. Giovanni's angry cries could be heard—the fire was roaring.

And suddenly, everything was silent.

The open air, cold and refreshing, was met with joy and relief. How different it felt—how wonderful!

And they flew.

And flew.

And flew.

Fiery Sapphire felt she needed a very good word for this situation. It was a complicated word, and it was hard to remember, but she eventually came up with it. The scenario was…

Tranquil.

OoO

Giovanni watched with dazed amazement the silhouetted outline of the Charizard gliding through the smoke-ridden air. Just like that, Fiery Sapphire disappeared from his grasp. Disappeared where, though? Into life? Into death? The one who had destroyed Team Rocket—vanished. The revolver fell from his hand to the floor. No need for that any longer. There were no Anti-Trainers to hunt down, no threats to dissipate. The last change he had at defeating the Anti-Trainers had flown away. Fiery Sapphire had been right—he had no spirit left in him.

Perspiration dotted his forehead from the intensity of the fire. He looked about the room, not caring as a small flame caught on the arm of his suit, slowly devouring the thick fabric. The room—his empire—burning away so feebly. Must it end this way? Well, at least Troy and Silvero were safe in Jhoto…what luck that Troy had left only hours ago.

The window that Fiery Sapphire had flown from, splinters of glass leaking from its edges, paved an entryway for terrified screams to echo through the room. Curious, Giovanni slowly hobbled across the room, clutching his bleeding stomach. He leaned out of the window, looking down upon the expanse of the headquarters.

Without any expression, tears sprung to his eyes.

Dozens of scientists, other Rocket members, and what were left of the Grunts, were saving themselves from the long, burning demise by delivering themselves from the windows and toppling to death. Bodies were strung upon trees; corpses were impaled by the jagged rocks below. The black-uniformed Grunts fell like cinders, fluttering away into nothing. Some were coated in fire, leaving a thin trail of smoke behind them.

The Boss's eyes continued to water, although not just from the smoke. Yes, it was confirmed. His empire was destroyed. When he had first began Team Rocket, his greatest fear was that they would disband. But now, and even greater fear had come true: Team Rocket had been exterminated.

As the rafters crackled, glowed red and orange, and fell to the floor in a series of splintering crashes, yet another small flame crawled upon his pant leg. He did not notice this as he held his now burning arm up to inspect it. Blisters formed and erupted against the blackened, shriveled skin, the smell of charred flesh wavering with the smoke. Intense pain flooded through his limb. He could jump. He could jump from the window. But no. That was cowardly.

He stepped back from the window, his vision almost blinded by the smoke. Now the fire seemed to realize who it was up against and traveled to him fiercely, rearing up like an angry animal. At once it lunged at him, barely missing his form.

Even if he had destroyed Kaden— and all of the other Anti-Trainers except one—victory had still not yet descended upon him. Of course, what was victory, exactly? Having all the Anti-Trainers dead, having Team Rocket become incredibly powerful? It seemed all so distant now…there was no way to describe it, other than that Giovanni felt both angered and confused that it seemed that the Anti-Trainers both fueled his will to live and tortured him almost to suicide. A bitter circle.

His tall frame seemed to give way as misery descended on him. His slicked, ebony hair, dark eyes, and sharp features appeared so despondent in their ways. Broad shoulders caved in, black suit slowly beginning to blaze as the enraged fire crept closer, and in a dark, almost scornful voice, Giovanni of the Land murmured, "So it ends."

And the fire overtook him.

OoO

Moments later, Ellen Adler's glassy, wide-open eyes squinted from the cold push of the wind against her face. She felt Feolan's warm body seated beside her, the Mightyena sniffing and licking at a wound on her arm. What a curious feeling to be flying above, flecks off blood flying from one's injuries. She hopped she would never experience the feeling again.

Painfully and slowly turning her head to the side, she glimpsed the burning Team Rocket Headquarters, billowing plumes of smoke as large flecks of ash fell from the building. It was done. It was finished. She had completed her mission. She sighed and looked towards the even sky again, the faint, pale figure of a moon already appearing in view. The wind ruffled the air, fluttering the damp, blood-clotted chunks of hair from the girl's face. She looked towards the Headquarters one last time and for a split second, curiously wondered what had happened to Giovanni.

Charles's voice slowly enveloped reality again. "…and don't worry, we'll get you straight to the hospital, we'll get you all fixed up…wait…but we need money for a hospital…" his voice saddened.

"We could stop at Ellen's house," Phil advised weakly, rubbing his sore fins. "I'm sure there's money there."

"Brilliant idea!" the Charizard said, trying his best to be cheery and optimistic.

'_Yes! Brilliant! So brilliant I'm going to vomit!_' the Voice muttered in disgust.

Meanwhile, Feolan paused in helping Ellen and looked down at her. "Listen, Ellen…I'm…I'm really sorry about your dad…I know it's hard."

"S'okay," she mumbled.

"Yeah…" he nodded slightly. "I guess…hey, wait. I know you're just saying that."

The girl shrugged.

"Saying what?" Kyoshi asked, concerned. From comfortably seated on Charles's neck, she peeked at Ellen. Feolan whispered something to her, and she nodded sagely. "Oh…so rude of me…I truly am sorry, too. It was," he paused, "such a horrific shock to hear it in such detail."

However cold and distant Kyoshi could sound at times, Ellen truly took these comments as real sympathy and smiled slightly, sighing again.

She stopped. Something was wrong.

She could not breathe.

The Anti-Trainer tried to inhale, but her organs were failing and refused to let her breathe. Fear gripped her head and frustrated tears ran down her blue-tinged face. The Pokémon's voices whirled around her in panic. Her lips trembled and turned purple. The hand clutched around the FS necklace twitched spasmodically and suddenly fell limp. She closed her eyes.

Ellen Adler's life was coming to an end.

OoO

Everything was dark.

Very dark.

So dark that Ellen could see absolutely nothing, just an ocean of inky pitch. Also, she felt almost disconnected from reality, as though there was a certain border between her physical and mental self. There was a blissfully free and painless feeling in the air. In fact, she felt absolutely nothing. Suddenly, an idea sprang into her mind.

Was she…dead?

There was a pause as she prepared to gasp fearfully, but when she inhaled there was no air. She was not breathing.

Oh, shit.

The Anti-Trainer began to panic, eyes darting back and forth only to see…darkness. Strangely, she found herself being able to scream, "_Charles! Kyoshi! Phil! Feolan! SOMEONE!_" Her calls quickly faded into nothing, swallowed by the void. Was this death? To be alone in an empty…whatever this was. It seemed even the Voice had disappeared, although she may have heard faint laughter in her head…or perhaps she had been imagining that.

"_Ellen_?"

She would have breathed a sigh of relief if not for the lack of oxygen. It was Feolan, although his voice had a different quality for it; it was slightly deeper and a bit hoarse. "Crap, Feolan, I was scared. Don't do that again. Where're the others? Are we, uh, dead? What ab—"

Ellen stopped.

That was not Feolan.

Deep in the back of her mind, tucked away behind horrible fears, memories, and the occasional gladness, the voice she had heard suddenly became familiar. Eerily familiar.

"Dad?" she asked timidly, suddenly feeling sheepish. What a belief—how stupid of her. There was no way—

"_Hmm?"_

Without so much of a moment, she burst into hysterics. "Dad? DAD!? What the hell—wha…what? Dad, is that you? Am I dead? I did it. I defeated Team Rocket, dad. And I heard 'bout you, 'bout how Giovanni…killed you. I shot 'em. I shot 'em for you. And before that, the Rhydon tried to eat me. It was bad, it was so bad…and I was real scared…Giovanni scared me a lot. It was like he was always one step ahead. And it was like no one could kill him. But guess what? I burned the Headquarters down! I won! I did! But…but now everyone is dead…even me…"

Seconds past before Kaden's voice sighed (she did not know how) as if preparing to explain something long and confusing to Ellen. "_Yep, it's me. And don't worry, everything is fine. But…that's not what I wanted to say…and, Ellen, I've seen everything that's happened. The Dead—they can see anything they want. Yeah. I saw the whole thing. I swear, if I was still alive…those bastards, I would kill them all. Starting with Giovanni," he snarled. "You don't understand how angry I am. Just because you're my daughter, they torture and kill you…actually…not quite kill you. This is Nothing. Limbo. Whatever_."

"So…I'm not dead?"

"_Well_," he said gently, "_you're not breathing. Your heart stopped. You've got a thread of life left in you."_

"Oh…right." Ellen secretly wished she would be dead soon. "But at least I got to shoot Giovanni, right? Are you…ya know, proud of me?"

"_It's so hard to say…"_ but he quickly added, "_It's hard to explain. As an Anti-Trainer…and I guess a dead one at that, I'm proud of you for being so courageous in the face of danger, just to seek vengeance for me. But as a father…it's different. Frankly, I never wanted you to become an Anti-Trainer. I wanted you to be safe. Half of me says that you should have never even messed with the Rockets in the first place. The other half says that you've become one of the most seasoned Anti-Trainers I've ever seen."_

It took a moment for her to comprehend her father's words, but eventually it connected. "Thanks, dad."

"_Don't even mention it."_

She asked timidly after a slight pause, "Am I gonna die now? I want to."

"_NO_!" Kaden cried out reverently, surprising her. "_You can't say that! That's bullshit! Never say that. I said it to myself a thousand times and what did I get? Giovanni shot me, hacked up my limbs, basically tore my face off and fed me to his Rhydon. And now I'm dead and all I can do is sit and watch and cry while my daughter is being gored by a Rhydon. I can't do anything for you, I couldn't do anything for you in the past and I can't do anything for you in the future. Why? Because I'm dead and mad as hell_." Quite suddenly, his voice cracked and a quick sob escaped him. "_You don't know what its lock to be distant to your own child for ten freaking years…_" He sighed shakily. _"Sorry for the outburst…didn't mean to scare you…"_

Almost moments after that, Ellen felt lightheadedness spread over her conscious self. Her hearing seemed to dim as Kaden said happily, "_Look, you're going to survive!"_

"Survive?" the girl questioned, surprised. "But…" her voice rose to a wail. "I don't wanna go! I wanna stay here with you! I can't leave…"

"_Either way, you can't stop it_," he said sternly, voice softening. "_Ellen, just keep safe and know that, yeah, I'm very proud of you."_

Her consciousness wavered. Her tongue felt thick. Eventually, she surrendered to Kaden's plea. "Okay, dad. I will. And thanks. And it's not your fault that you died. I mean, you were against Team Rocket."

He chuckled, and Ellen fearfully realized that his voice was fading away. "_Good, then_."

"Dad—"

"_Guess it's time to go. Bye…I love you_."

"I love you too, but I don't want to go, dad—"

And suddenly everything was bright.

Very bright.

OoO

When she woke up, there were two things she heard. One was the beating and pounding of rain against the small window, accompanied by occasional raw claps of thunder. A thunderstorm in November; how odd. The other noise came from deep inside her mind, smooth and scathing as The Voice said, '_That little visit was courtesy of me.'_

Groaning, Ellen's head lolled to the side, falling off what seemed to be a pillow. She quickly opened her eyes, taking in the room with a sideways point of view. A small, white room surrounded her, clean with the heavy scent of disinfectant. She looked down at herself. Her arms were covered in clean white gauze, a tiny needle poking from her vein and hooked up to a large…she winced. Blood bag. Her legs were clad in thin casts and propped up slightly. Her whole body, covered by blankets, was strangely pained and cold. She flexed her stiff, bandaged fingers and quickly saw the knife and FS necklace on the bedside table. Slowly moving her arm, her hand hovered over the necklace before quickly snatching up the knife.

"Erm…Ellen?"

The Anti-Trainer's head shot up to look at a chair in the corner, occupied by…

…Brendan Birch.

Her eyes widened and she clutched the knife to her chest out of sheer surprise. "B-b-brendan?" she stammered, her voice frail. "B-but yer…d-dead."

The young man chuckled, leaning back farther in his seat. He was wearing a bowler hat, blue vest, and a lime green shirt underneath, masking the cast that bound his arm. An open notebook rested on his lap. He pushed up the bowler from his head, revealing one eye with a large purple bruise, the other eye's lower lashes coated with thick layers of mascara. "R-r-r-r-r-r-really? I'm dead? Oh, but look at this, looks like I'm palpable." He swung his free arm comically to demonstrate. "See?"

"B-but…how…you died' in the colapps'…" mind clouded, she lazily stared up at the ceiling. "En'…I thought _I_ died…wher' am I?"

"Oh, the collapse of the base was horrible, all right. It's just that I was close to the exit, so it wasn't as bad for me. I got out in the nick of time, excuse the cliché."

Ellen sat bolt upright, but collapsed with a wince as pain shot through her upper body. Hope entered her mind. "But…ten'…what 'bout teh rest?"

Brendan grew dour, running a hand through his bleach white hair in thought. "Ah, right. Yeh. There's, as they say, good news and bad news. Do you want the bad news first?"

"Yeah," came her automatic reply.

"Well…how should I say this _gracefully_? Marylyn, Samara, and…my father have passed over the River Styx. Oh, and Miguel broke his ankle, Russell's robotic arm is crushed, Cerulean City is destroyed, and there've been a number of suicides by the police force."

The girl stared at him, lips trembling. "No…nooo…too many people've 'ready d-d-died…" he sentence was barely above a whisper. "Bout' my mum?"

"Fine," the boy answered bluntly, perhaps even a bit jealously. "She fine."

"No inurires, no—"

"None at all, thank you."

She was silent, looking down before saying, "I'm surry bout' yer da'…if it makes ya fffeel any—" _No_. Suddenly, everything seemed to flood into her mind—every memory of the Headquarters, every detail or pain she felt was instantly revisited. Seized with distraught, she gasped, "B-b-brandun, where's 'erybody?"

Surprised, he stood up hastily and walked to the door. "Here— er, they just left ten minutes ago to eat with the Pokémon. I'll find them." With that, he slammed the door behind him and left the girl alone.

'_It's certainly bittersweet_,' The Voice said calmly. '_Seems you've got an equal amount of good and bad._'

"_More bad than good_…" she thought, closing her eyes. She was so tired, it was overwhelming…no, she couldn't go to sleep! She needed to see her friends and family! No…well…maybe it was all right for a few minutes.

After much shuffling and rattling of the door, the door swung open with a burst of frenzied activity. "Ellen, honey. Ellen!" For some reason unbeknownst to the Anti-Trainer, a voice was crying. Why did so many unidentified voices enjoy coming into her life? First Articuno and Swellow, then The Voice, then Kaden, and now…Fredia?

A male voice. Russell? "Fredia, she's fine…she's…" A pause, the voice prepared to say something, but cracked abruptly and became silent. The cold touch of metal ran against one of the bandaged gashes in her arm, making Ellen wince with pain and jerk her arm limply away. There was a slight gasp. "Ellen? Ellen, its Russell. Your mom is here with me. It's okay. It's okay. You're safe."

"And Miguel is here, too," added a voice.

Finally, her eyes opened. Fredia, Russell, Miguel, Charles, Feolan, Kyoshi, and Phil stood above the bed, staring at her. Indeed, her soul was filled with both happiness and confusion, or as much as it could, mind you, as it already contained a majority of sadness and fear.

A goofy smile appeared on the Swampert's face. "Hey, Ellen didn't die!"

"Momm," Ellen began slowly, eerily deadpan. "Mom."

"Yes, sweetie," Fredia crooned softly, as if she was a small child. She looked no different, besides the shadows beneath her eyes. "It's all right. You're fine, you're fine. I'm here."

"Nuh-uh. Nuh-uh. I'm not…I hurt all over. But-" her voice took on a tiring, labored quality. She wheezed, "…Mom…Rrckets' are gone…Russell…Rrckets' are gone…me…n' Pokémon…n' Mew made 'em go away…from HQ…'en The Voice…en'…en' I died…" Russell and Fredia stared at each other in shock. Was she delusional?

"Honey," the mother began shakily, "I…I think your head is a little messed up. Maybe we can-"

There came a strangled sound from Russell. Fredia looked up to find the Anti-Trainer's face paled with shock. "You went to the Headquarters, didn't you!? That's— that's why you have all those…gun wounds and bites and…" his angry voice began to shake. "_Godamnit, those stupid FS cuts_! She was _shot_. Right in the shoulder. Right in the stomach." His face turned hostile, and he slammed his fist against the arm of the bed. "_Giovanni did this, the bastard_!" he roared.

Ellen looked from Russell to Fredia, tears welling in her already stinging eyes. How could she tell them what she had learned about Kaden…?

"Russell!" Fredia's cold, sharp tone jerked Ellen out of her momentary insanity. "God, Russ, you're scaring her. Look, she's in tears. Just be quiet for once, will you? Listen, I'll go call up the doctor, and…"

The girl _was_ crying, but for a different reason. She shook her head silently and took deep, rattling breaths before whipping her raw eyes with the back of her hand and sighing. Her voice came out in a tremble. "No…_no_! 'At's not it…mom…mom…" she almost reverted calling her 'mama' as she did when she was smaller. "…when I…when I was in the HQ…I was hidin' n' runnin' lot, n' I was tryin' to…to…detroy teh Rockets…but I dunno how I was 'posed to do that…en' then Giovanni found me n'…_and_…" another sob. "_And_ he tried to kill me…but…but I had uh' knife en' I stabbbbed himmm…'en then they caught me 'en took me to uh' prison…and then I got chaseeed…his 'Rhydun tried to eat me…and Giovanni shot me…" Russell, Fredia, and Miguel were horrified by now. "But that's not teh' point…when Giovanni was tryin' to kill me…he told me that…" Abruptly, her breath faded away, and all was silent. Ellen's gaze flicked disjointedly around the room.

'_Tell them…'_ The Voice sang.

"Ellen…?" Russell asked gently.

"_He killed dad, he killed 'em!_" Ellen wailed, her entire being flooded with anger and sadness._ "Oh shit, goddamn' he's gonneeee! Kadn' is dead en' Giovanni toll' me that he shot 'em, but that'd didn' kill 'em en' then…and then he fed him to the Rhydun and it ate him alive, and he DIEEDDDD. Damnit, my da is dead…he's dead…I'm surry, mom, I'm really sorry…dad…he's gone_…_I miss 'em…I miss 'em so much now…!"_

Yes, indeed she did. It was obvious to anyone who saw her. Through her traveling, she had changed both mentally and physically: her eyes were duller. Her body was practically destroyed. She had gone insane, and yet she had become mentally stronger in a strange trade-off.

The Anti-Trainer could still remember when she had first set off; she was hesitant, but with Charles's help soon became accustomed to her life as a trainer. Then came Feolan, who stayed with her even through the turbulent period of beginning her life as an Anti-Trainer. And Kyoshi, who shared her fear in Silph Co. And Phil, who, as did Ellen, matured even the littlest bit.

And even as the room was filled with questions, tears, and remembrances, she still felt that she had actually…_accomplished_ something. Something quite important. Yes, Ellen Adler accomplished something quite abnormal.

She never became the Pokémon Champion, that was true, nor had she collected all eight badges, and she still disliked Pallet Town fully. But she had managed to destroy her fears—Team Rocket. That was enough for her.

_Yeah_, she decided quietly, musing over the outcomes that could have been. _It's enough._ _After so much death…it's a whole lot._

With the knife clutched in one hand and the FS necklace in the other, hate and love, Fiery Sapphire began to cry.

OoO

Hey, look! I'm finished.

Many thanks to all who have been reading and reviewing. I hope you as the readers enjoyed this chapter, as the next chapter, The Epilogue, will answer most questions and tell the aftermaths of characters and such…in story-form, of course.

A big hug to anyone who can guess where Brendan's outfit is associated with. Hint: mascara.

Oh, and the brilliant phrase 'You are crap's crap' is copyrighted by my good friend. Yes, we have such a close bond that we call each other 'crap's crap.'

Strictly for semi-symbolic purposes, this is the only time the word 'fuck' or any sort of derivative of it will be used. Rejoice, readers who flinch at it.

Stop around for the Epilogue, if you'd like! Oh, and it's 1:00 A.M here. Yay. I'm sleeping now.

-Flameboo


	41. Another Home, Redux

_My Appa-olly-ologies to anyone who doesn't like cursing, violence, gore, some sexual content, occult references, and more. Instead of reading this, go down to the Korova Milk Bar for some spiked milk._

_I own all of my characters besides the obviously copyrighted ones. I also own the elements of 'Nothing', the Anti-Trainers, The Voice, and a few other things that might seem a bit unorthodox_.

Brace yourself. You're in for a _strange_ chapter.

OoO

Fiery Sapphire

Chapter 41

Memento Mori

**Three Weeks Later.**

Pallet Town was exactly the same as it had been in the beginning.

Well…somewhat.

It was still a small neighborhood, resting on the cliffs of the Kanto Sea. The quaint, white houses still rested faithfully in their dry lawns, crowded by browning gardens as December fell upon the regions. No normal soul was outside that moment, as the sky was gray and dark, the air miserably cold and liable to bring about a rare winter rainstorm. Even the Pidgies that usually hopped around in the brush were huddled together on sparse, naked tree branches, and the Shelder clung to the rocky cliffs tightly.

People had moved in and moved out, but the size of the town was generally the same. When word came forth that Cerulean City had been totally destroyed, the citizens had become nervous and requested a leader of the town, or at least another professor, as the other one had died 'quite tragically, although I'm not sure how', as people put it. The Elite Four decided on Professor Oak, a famed and elderly professor who also wished to return to his hometown. As Cerulean City was slowly reconstructed (they did away with the odd, collapsed cave simply lying there), Professor Oak opened the research lab as a registration area for new trainers. Thus, Pallet Town became quite crowded and a major point in Pokémon training.

But in one of the houses, and a smaller one at that, were a group of people who didn't quite care what was happening in terms of Pokémon trainers…in fact, there were concerned with _Anti_-Trainers.

One of these people was Brendan Birch, clad in his flamboyant attire of a fitted red wool coat with large blue buttons, gray plaid pants, and sandals.

Sitting next to him on a small couch was Dwayne, his new boyfriend. A large seventeen-year old with skin the color of strong coffee, Dwayne and Brendan had met when the writer was staying with his mother in Hoenn, his original birthplace. One could say that it was love at first sight when the two had first discussed if Rousseau's Social Contract did indeed outline the society of the regions. Now that Brendan had returned to Kanto for a small visit (and to brag of his adventure in Hoenn, apparently), Dwayne was by his side.

In another chair was Jack, who had taken the new train from Jhoto to Kanto as soon as Miguel had called him after the collapse of the Anti-Trainer base. From then on, Miguel and Jack were inseparable. Jack seemed to always be worried for his older brother's various injuries at surviving the collapse, and Miguel always looked as if a dozen Grunts would spring from the woodwork and snatch Jack away. After the prospect of losing each other twice, they would take no more chances and made a pact to generally stick together. Due to Jack's long-lasting paranoia and fear of Team Rocket, Gwen was also by his side, looking as chilling and graceful as ever.

Next to Miguel was Russell, who was fiddling with his repaired mechanical arm and looking quite bored. The Semi-Head Anti-Trainer had taken the news of Kaden's death quite hard, let alone Ellen's gruesome retelling of her time in the Team Rocket Headquarters. Never before had he heard Giovanni to be so malicious and utterly _desperate_. He supposed that the Boss had been so exasperated that he really did not care what happened— and, like Russell now was, Giovanni had been unmotivated. All of the Team Rocket members had either fled or died.

Left with virtually no profession and a severe bout of shock, he considered returning to his residence in Orre and continuing his career as a columnist, but decided to stay in Kanto for a bit to help Fredia revert to…er…normal life, or as normal as life could be.

Then, next to Russell was Fredia, who, like the other Anti-Trainers, was still suffering from the realization of Kaden's death. She sat quietly, waiting for someone to strike up a conversation. There was much less speech in her life, much less sleep and much less productivity. Work suddenly seemed very tiring, and she constantly worried over her daughter— that is, the skeletal, ghost-like thing that once was her daughter. What worried her most, though, was that knife. _That bloody, bloody knife_. Whenever she saw Ellen, she was with the knife. Rubbing her thumb against the blade, watching TV with the knife laying on the floor below her, whimpering and digging the knife into the mattress as she slept…yet, she told herself to ignore it. Just ignore it. That was that.

Unlike the other Anti-Trainers, Fredia had suffered no wounds from the collapse whatsoever. None, save for perhaps a bruise or two. The other Anti-Trainers were extremely curious of this, but they did not bring it up, as Fredia did not enjoy discussing it. The older and wiser Russell had a feeling it would never be spoken of, but he had a strong feeling at what had happened—but he did not pry, and Fredia was _quite_ glad that no one pried. She did not want to say, especially to Ellen—

'_When the base had begun to collapse, Fredia was in one of the corners, having just seen her daughter off. The others were scattered about, some in the middle of the room, the luckier on the sides or in the corner. They were still in danger, though, as huge chunks of rock begun splitting from the walls and tumbling down onto the ground, crushing anyone who dared stand beneath it. Occasionally, Rhydon would see that the rocks were not causing maximum damage and pick out an Anti-Trainer to claw at, violently tossing them into one of the walls or otherwise ripping their torso to shreds._

_Giovanni had seen the base collapsing—he, safe, closer to the cover of his Pokémon, and thoroughly enjoying everything. What a wonderful experience, one of the finest he had ever…he stopped. To the right, he could see Fredia cowering and ducking out of the way of jagged pieces of debris, liable to be crushed (or torn apart) no matter how fiercely she evaded. He felt a sadness growing upon him, knowing that his love would be killed. Well, that was life, wasn't it?_

_Although…he could save her and have a bit of time with her, but that would be one of the worst things he could imagine: falling for an Anti-Trainer. His lust for Fredia had come quickly the first time he had seen her, it was nothing intimate or special to the Boss. Yet, now he had feelings for an Anti-Trainer…and one who had close relationships with Kaden and Fiery Sapphire. But something urged him to step from the protection of the Rhydon—only for a moment, but still, away from shelter. Amid the debris, he seized Fredia's arm and violently yanked her to the safety of his Rhydon's giant form. Without thought, he pushed her against the closest wall, making sure they were in _very_ close proximity. Yes, trying to ignore that he loved Fredia had cost him dearly. He no longer cared that she was an Anti-Trainer…and Troy had left, following Fiery Sapphire, so she wouldn't be hurt, either._

"_Giovanni?" Fredia asked shrilly, obviously shocked. Her hair was disordered and her face terrified, but she still was appetizingly beautiful to him. "What— what—why did you…get away from me! Dammit, you!" She tried to push him away, but the Boss's strength overpowered her own strength._

"_Fredia, please," he said softly, brushing some of her hair from her face. "I'm not going to hurt you…"_

_She stopped and stared at him, eyes glaring. "Hard for you to say after you just destroyed Cerulean City and the Anti-Trainer base. Oh, and you tortured my own daughter. Do you think I'll believe you after what you've done?" she spat viciously._

_The Boss had a very rare moment in which he was speechless. He could not curse her, he did not want to. "I…understand your thoughts, but those attacks were not on you. I targeted the other Anti-Trainers. The ones who do not deserve to live—" he paused when he saw Fredia's appalled expression, and said sternly, "I cannot fathom why a group of dogs would even challenge Team Rocket. We've already won, why should anyone persist? Why? I'm asking you, Fredia." His hand cupped her chin._

_The woman sighed heavily, her face tightening with melancholy. "Giovanni, I can't answer your questions. I was once an Anti-Trainer, and I'm talking to the Head of Team Rocket about 'a group of dogs'; the Anti-Trainers. I can't agree with you."_

"_Fine," he said sternly, becoming impatient. "Then if we can't behave like humans, we'll behave like animals." Then he held her face in his hands and kissed her passionately and deeply, his hands beginning to roam from her face to her neck to her shoulders and other said places._

_This was much better than anything Giovanni could have imagined, save for a few select very macabre and gruesome things (and sex). This was one of the many things he prided himself in— not only was he a powerful leader, but he was an ardent lover. He often wondered why Fredia had chosen Kaden over himself when it came to carnal measures. Hmph. Fiery Sapphire was probably Kaden's fault; he didn't have the strength to truly enjoy Fredia. The name Fiery Sapphire brought him back to reality, and with a bout of sadness, he realized that he had other matters to attend, namely, killing of the girl. Well, at least that would be entertaining. _

_Breaking away from the kiss and brushing his lips against Fredia's ear, he realized how reactive to the kiss she had been—it was as if she enjoyed it. He muttered, "You haven't been touched in a long time, have you? Surprising, though. You seemed to enjoy it more. Interesting. After..._cleaning up_, I'm going back to the headquarters. I enjoyed the time we spent together, but even greater things are yet to be finished." With that terse statement, he turned to his Rhydon, who was still pawing around in the rubble. The collapse had ended, leveling the entire cave and leaving a façade of dust and rock. The bodies of the Anti-Trainers and the Birch father and son were completely out of view, Fredia realized, her throat tightening. They had been buried alive. "Rhydon, up, up," he commanded. The behemoth stopped, rigid, and with a snort rose so that it was simply standing, looking about idly._

"_Greater things yet to be finished?" Fredia repeated lividly, confused and disgusted. "What are you talking about?" Her mind slowly returned to its normal state, on which she slowly came to realize his comment. "If you even think about hurting her, then I'll…"_

"_Shhh," the Boss commanded quickly, holding a hand up in motion to silence her. She did so, curious. From his pocket, he produced the revolver and surveyed the destroyed Anti-Trainer base, absorbing each rock and splintered piece of wood. With a cautious step, he entered the destroyed area, careful to have his revolver poised at all times. Fredia walked quietly forward, surveying what Giovanni was doing. He sorted through the debris with his feet, eyes forever on the ground. A feeling of sickness spread through her, and she asked, "What…are you doing?"_

_He made a motion for her to be quiet again, and she followed his footsteps into the debris until she was practically at his shoulder. About three feet in front of them was a large boulder, and Giovanni paused, finger twitching slightly on the trigger of the revolver. She swallowed as the Boss came upon a large rock, and he quickly pushed it aside. There lay the body of Collin Birch, severely cut and bruised. His body had been torn by Rhydon's claws, as evidence of the bloody, ripped skin and partly visible muscle and bone. His back was to them, face in the ground, and yet when uncovered he managed to groan softly._

_Without hesitation, Giovanni cocked the revolver and shot six bullets into the professor's head, his arm jerking with each shot. Fredia, horrified, reflexively raised her knuckle to bite on it. Immediately after the smoke drifted away, the two could see a large, almost gash-like hole in his head surrounded by dark blood matted into his brown hair. His body, tense and curled, had relaxed._

_The woman, who had been shakily mumbling several prayers to Mew, quieted for a moment before whispering, "They're all going to die no matter what, Giovanni. Don't do this to me. Don't do this to them. Please."_

"_Damnit," the Boss said quietly, "that wasn't an Anti-Trainer, was it?" She shook her head, and he asked, "Well, who then? Who was it?"_

_Seized with rage, she hissed, "Why do you even care? He's already dead, the Anti-Trainers are already dead, practically everyone is dead! You might as well finish off the rest of Kanto, too. I'd suppose it do us some good."_

_Giovanni stared at her before continuing to hunt through the rocks. She followed. "This must be done, amore mio. I cannot put it any other way. A landslide is not enough to know that they are dead."_

_She flinched as he upturned another rock, pointing the gun down at it, and yet no one was there. Good. The more time he spent looking for them, the more time the Anti-Trainers…and Ellen were allowed to be safe. A rafter of wood was upturned, and there was half of Samara, her lower body partly covered by a large rock. Face to them, her eyes wide in their sockets, mouth closed. Her arm had been broken at the elbow, and her legs had been crushed fully by the large boulder._

_As Giovanni smiled and said, "I know this one; truly an Anti-Trainer," Fredia caught his wrist as he prepared to shoot her._

"_No, stop. She's already dead. Look, she's not breathing." Fredia jabbed her index finger at the body to indicate that there was no breathing and no movement whatsoever._

"_Hmm. Really? I suppose you're right." The man squinted and leaned down a bit to see. With that, he fired three bullets at her face, one beating her eye to a jelly, one in her cheek and one in her forehead. "One can never be sure. Now, where is my good friend Russell? Russell the Grunt? The Ex-Rocket? Come out, bastard, I've got something for you."_

_Fredia stood in shock as Giovanni began to walk away, calling out for Russell. No, this could not happen. She would have to stop him before anymore were killed…or humiliated in their death, like Samara. "Wait," she said firmly, looking up from the corpse of the Anti-Trainer. The Boss tensed and turned to her, waiting patiently— a very rare thing for him. But for Fredia, yes. "No. You can't murder them— they're only three left; some poor boy, Russell, and Marylyn. Dead. Giovanni, I'll do anything. I'll sleep with you. I'll…whatever you want me to do. Just— just not that."_

_He stared at her for a bit, expression softening into…sympathy? Compassion? He could take her offer; the Anti-Trainers could wait. Everything could wait. But no. He was straying to far from his goals. Swallowing, he said, smiling very slightly, "No. Two Anti-Trainers are finished, only…" he calculated the number. "Two to go…two? No, three…three?" His smile died, replaced by an angered snarl. "Godamnit, Fiery Sapphire! Damnit!" He quickly began to walk back to Rhydon, stepping on Birch's corpse as he passed. Once on level ground, returned Rhydon to its Pokéball, calling out Aerodactyl. How could he have forgotten? She was much more important than these half-dead Anti-Trainers were; she had a chance of _winning

_Fredia shook her head, also beginning to rapidly walk back. There was nothing she could do, absolutely nothing— she carefully avoided stepping on the Professor. "Giovanni!" she called, but it was all in vain, as he was already on Aerodactyl and twelve feet from the ground. Offering her only a soft look of adoration as goodbye, he flew away to his eventual death.'_

Yet, when Fredia had seen Ellen, it was almost as if she had already known that Giovanni was attracted to her. Her daughter was very hesitant to speak of Giovanni. In fact, she was quite hesitant to speak of anything to do with Team Rocket. Perhaps she was scared.

Or perhaps she was scarred.

Ellen Adler could remember her time in the Headquarters quite well; the fearful memories were still fresh and bloody in her distorted mind. Even now, Ellen could remember that in a certain room she had run though, there had been huge, red writing on the largest wall: 'It is with blood that we will triumph. It is with terror that we will triumph. All Kanto exists for the glory of Team Rocket'.

The official motto of Team Rocket…_Team Rocket_…gone, gone, but still lingering like a vengeful ghost. Ellen's serious injuries had left their toll, constant reminders. Her arms and hands were not as dexterous as they once were; she could hardly make a tight fist, her arms no longer held swift reflexes. She still used crutches, but her bones had healed very nicely, save for the large bumps protruding from her shins where her bones had fused together oddly. Thank Mew— er, Thank Articuno that the hospital Chansey were there to assist. Their healing powers were not as strong as the ones Kyoshi had once obtained, but they certainly helped. Why, one Chansey had recently informed her that she would be off her crutches in two weeks— a huge accomplishment.

And what of her mind? The Voice was still her lovely companion; it would always comfort her with words of cruelty in the day and soothe her with terrible dreams in the night. It's musical, male/female voice was always there, even in times of great happiness. It always made sure that she remembered her past adventures, always mentioning _something, anything_ about Team Rocket or her dead comrades.

She continued to have nonsensical nightmares. In one dream, she was suspended in the air by means of a series of intricate ropes, wound around her limbs and neck. Her body had been twisted in an odd, impossible position, and yet she found herself still alive. Around her was a cacophony of voices, screaming and mumbling oaths in a chaotic jumble. Quite suddenly, Giovanni had appeared in the room, and the ropes had snapped so that Ellen's limbs and neck were snapped and she was thrown to the ground, shrieking.

Needless to say, she did not sleep much at all. To hide the fact, concealer had been crudely dabbed under her eyes. When he returned to Kanto, Brendan had kindly offered to help her with the strange 'cosmetics' in an attempt to make her 'more pleasing to the eye'. Ellen had only allowed concealer and a quick slash of pink lip gloss. Nothing more; the mascara brush looked menacing enough. After all, the make-up she was wearing felt unnatural and thick, seeping into her itching cuts and scars.

She felt a _bit_ thankful for it, though. In coming home, she had found solstice in concentrating on what a she thought 'normal' teenage girls did. Spending time in front of the mirror, she had come to believe that Giovanni had been right in calling her horrible names such as 'ugly bitch'. Her pasty face was small, narrow, and bony, lips thin, nose short and pug, but her eyes were larger in comparison, hidden behind a rim of shadows. Her body was tall and thin, breasts sparse and almost non-existent, legs occasionally wobbling and hoping up and down like some newborn Hoothoot. Oh, and there was the reddish, infected FS carved below her collarbone. That was still there.

Sitting in a chair, slightly isolated from the rest of the group who were now talking mindlessly, she relaxed a bit and took to picking tiny threads of chair fabric with her knife. After a long bit of thinking in the hospital room, Ellen had decided that the knife would officially become _her own_. She had often referred to it as 'Donovan's Knife' before, but she assumed that Donovan would be willing to give it to her if he was alive…er…well, at least she liked to believe that. She had come to realize that Donovan was a much more sympathetic Rocket member than she thought. All she had to do was think back to the Pokémon Tower in which Donovan had uttered, 'No! You don't understand! He'll kill me, he'll kill me!' after Ellen had fled from the scene. Perhaps Donovan would have approved of her newfound ruthlessness and bestowed the weapon upon her. Or, maybe not. But what did that matter? He was dead, like half of the other people she knew.

Like Kaden. _Kaden_. She continuously told herself that it was childish to mourn over someone who had died so many years ago, but her sadness continued to persist. Perhaps it was the hope that she would indeed find him one day, even after she had defeated Team Rocket. But with Giovanni giving a clear (and gruesome) recount of her father's death, there was no way that she would see him again. Well, except for death. But death came to her as sort of a question—knowing so many creatures who interacted with the dead, and having a conversation with the voice of dead Kaden (although she did not know if she was simply imagining it), she was fearful of what lay beyond life.

If there were any way to simply go back in time and relive her life as a little girl, Ellen would have given anything to do so. She wished to be whisked back to her homeland of Fuchsia, back in her warm, quaint house, protected from the outside world. A smaller Ellen, protected by her two parents who cast away all the nameless fears that plagued the dangerous region of Kanto. But really—that could never happen, and she knew this.

There was no memoriam service for Kaden, no funeral. She wanted to _forget_, to escape his death. She would have her own '_funeral_' in time—she had the FS necklace stowed in her bedside table drawer, collecting dust. Just waiting to be buried away. The destruction of the Headquarters was like the destruction of her being: everyone could burn away, every enemy, every memory and story— could die. She didn't care. Go ahead, burn. It was punishment.

'_You're thinking well today_,' The Voice crooned. '_In fact, a bit more violent than usual. Perhaps you should be seeing you psychiatrist friend again…_'

Ellen mentally rolled her eyes. _Psychiatrist Friend_. Yeah, right. She could remember sitting down with her and being asked what the girl described as 'stupid questions':

"Why aren't you interacting with other teenagers? Do you feel different?"

"Can you tell me why you carry around the knife sometimes? It's very dangerous."

"Is there anything you'd like to talk about today?"

"Think about it! You'll probably get into one of those big ole' history books someday! Wouldn't that be nice?

"How are you today?"

"Fine," Ellen had said.

"You don't sound fine. Is anything wrong?"

"No."

"Sure?"

"Holy shit, of course somethin' is wrong! My dad was murdered, half of my friends were murdered, my mom was freakin' molested, I was tortured by the bastard Leader of Team Rocket who did all of those other things to all of those other people, and some voice keeps on talkin' to me. You think I'm _fine_?"

After a few more of those visits, the woman did not come back. Maybe it was because of one session in which she explained in detail how she stabbed and shot the leader, yes, the Leader of Team Rocket. But she was much happier without help, in fact. It was much easier to cope with problems that way.

After a long bout of thinking, Ellen finally rose from the chair, mumbled something about going upstairs, and slowly hobbled out of the living room. No one really noticed, as they had taken to a nicer subject, such as...weather. Which, in fact, was utterly horrible, as it began to rain heavily. Ellen ascended the steep steps carefully, afraid to test her weight on one leg at a time. After a painfully long while, she stopped when she saw that the door to her room was closed— her Pokémon had preferred the company of each other and had decided to stay upstairs, but she had left the door _open_. Quietly as she could, she stepped up to the door and pressed her ear against the cold wood.

"It's a damn shame it had to happen to her. Nuthin' new to me, though. Always the unlucky one that gets even more unlucky." _Feolan, _she guessed.

_Charles_. "But there are always two sides. She's lucky to survive…hell, we all are. Of course, I suppose it would have been better if Kaden had survived. Or just stayed home, at least."

_Feolan_. "But we would have never met Ellen."

A pause, and finally, wearily…

"It's not our place to gossip. It could hurt people…_listening_." _Kyoshi_. Ellen flinched at this, reminding herself of the Persian's acute sense of sound.

"I wonder what Rhydon thought Kaden tasted like. You know, all those bones and stuff." _Phil_, in his usual unhelpful and oddly random way.

'_Gossip, gossip, is no fun…when you speak of dead and done,'_ whispered The Voice in prose.

Ellen, feeling a bit angry, took this time to open the door and hobble into the room. "That reminds me," she muttered under her ragged breath, not really reminded at all, "got to clean out my backpack." From her closet, she produced a tattered, bloodstained blue backpack, and tossed it on the bed. She had forgotten about the bag for a time, but facing in and cleaning it out felt like a purge from her negative emotions.

"Oh, Ellen," Kyoshi sighed sympathetically, bent on redeeming herself for lack of emotion in past times. "We didn't mean anything bad…you heard us, we were concerned…besides Phil and Feolan, of course."

"Hey!" the Swampert cried, frowning and crossing his fins. "What's the big idea? Feolan started it!"

"_What_?" the Mightyena gasped, taken aback. "You were the one who started talking about Rhydon! I was actually worried for Ellen!"

"Oh…oh, yeah? Well…well you're _dumb_!"

"Shut up!"

"No!"

"Shut up!"

"No!"

"Shut up!"

"Make me!"

"_Fine_!" With that, Feolan tackled Phil and the two began to growl and gurgle at each other, shouting various things such as 'your mom' and 'your face'. Needless to say, their argument was pointless.

"Yeah, I know…" said Ellen, responding to Kyoshi and unaware of the fight. Sitting down on her bed next to Charles, she said, "I guess this'll never go away. You know, everything. I can't go to sleep and wake up and it's gone. Everybody downstairs is all quiet. It's like they're afraid to talk to me."

'_If I was normal, I'd be afraid to talk to you. Stabbed and shot the Leader of Team Rocket…pah! I'm in the mind of a little murderer.'_ The Voice emitted a sickening wretch of disgust.

"Maybe they wanted to talk about something alone," Charles offered. After the Headquarters, Charles's wing had healed up very nicely, and the hours of free time had allowed him to fly to Mt. Ember to reunite with his family (Henry Wadsworth XI and Clarissa Antoinette Windsor IV; he had no siblings) and his clan of fellow dragons. He and Kyoshi continued to be a close bonded-couple, although his parents found it most uncanny. There was no need for the clichéd forbidden love, though, so his parents quickly accepted and welcomed the Persian with a flourish.

"Like what? Talking about what?" the girl asked, unzipping the bag. She pawed around in it with bony hands, frowning. "Like how crazy I can get?"

'_Excuse me, but I feel offended. If you care to know, you're probably just paranoid. The adults, though, are probably just depressed,_' The Voice said.

"No," Kyoshi said, responding to Ellen's question. "They're just worried, I assume. But enough of this. Unpacking." Even though Fredia had been found to be alive, Kyoshi was accustomed to being a motherly figure, and still held steadfast with the job. Once or twice, she had visited Michigan, Ontario, and Elder Alden in her birthplace, the little forest just outside of Lavender Town. Elder Alden was still alive, the Tauros had reformed himself (he was brainwashed, anyway), and Michigan and Ontario had evolved into handsome Persian. Surprisingly, Michigan did not seem angry that Kyoshi and Charles were pair (even though they technically could not mate). Apparently, the Lake Brothers had always thought of themselves as rugged adventurers and bachelors, and had gone on a quest to 'vanquish' Jefferson's ghost. That was another story, though.

Yet, for a bit, Kyoshi had worked very hard to regain her Psychic powers that had been lost to the Gengar. Hours upon hours of training had come upon her, only with minimal results: the least she could do was heal minor burns and cuts, and levitating a shoe was a great challenge. Once or twice, did she try to enter _Nothing_— it had always been her goal to fall into a state of absolute concentration so that she may reach the place. It had been said that many ghosts rested there, and the feline was eager to meet her family. She did get to _Nothing_ once, but it was only for a split second…and what she saw scared her. _Nothing_ was completely dark, completely silent. In essence, it was…well, nothing.

"Wait, wait." Feolan held up his paws, also nodding at Kyoshi and Phil. "How can we unpack your backpack if we don't have any…_thumbs_?" Forever afflicted with a weak back leg, Feolan soon learned to live impaired. Remembering that he did indeed have a girlfriend, Adora, he visited her at the tollbooth between Saffron and Celadon. While there, he did a bit of sight seeing and found that Silph Co. had been cleaned up and was manufacturing properly, Wegmans had been converted to a multi-level record shop, and the Celadon Game Corner had been torn down. Nothing was in its place.

"Awww, man." Phil sunk his head. Phil was still the immature, over-emotional Swampert that he had been before. One week, he had braved Kanto to visit his parents and _Crazy_ Uncle Jeffery. Through his travels, he had found that Kanto had become somewhat disorganized, or at least confused. Eerily enough, it was as if Giovanni had indeed controlled Kanto and organized its economic, social, and political affairs. Perhaps it was the common enemy that united Kanto, or perhaps it was just a thought…but the Elite Four was doing a poor job of controlling the region. Things were becoming expensive, Cerulean City was still in turmoil, and the Elite Four had yet to find a replacement Gym Leaders for the late Misty, broken and dead, and Giovanni, as it seemed the man had simply disappeared…

Ellen had often thought of what had happened to Giovanni. Alive? Hiding, plotting his return? Plotting her death? Or, dead? Lying in the earth, in his element? A ghost, a voice just like Kaden? Wait, what was she thinking? She didn't even know if she had spoken to Kaden. It could have been insanity. But…if she had really spoken with him, than couldn't Giovanni contact her? In unconsciousness? In a dream? She felt a small fear creep upon her, knowing that her audiences with Giovanni may not done.

"Ellen." Charles's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "Are you going to unpack?"

"Uh…right." Shaking her head a bit, she poured the contents of her backpack onto the bed. Clothes, food, water, repeat— everything seemed to be in it. She started with her clothing, throwing mostly everything away due to the large holes and gashes in the fabric. After all food and water had been disposed of, she paused and stared at the things she was left with. Small items, usually unnoticeable, but now they clawed and choked her memory: a crumpled S.S Anne ticket, a few Game Corner coins and a card key, make-up that Abby had given her to blend in at Silph Co., the Silph Scope from Will, the Hoot-Hoot eye mask she had worn to Viola's costume party, the key to the Cinnabar Gym, and the meteor she forgot to give to the man named Robert…and there were the half-eaten granola bars, of course.

"Hey, cool! Granola!" Phil squealed, snatching up the food to devour it greedily.

Charles raised his non-existent eyebrows while the examining the Game Corner coins. Each little gold coin had been emblazoned with the letter 'G'. It had looked so innocent when they had first seen it… "Well, this is certainly…_nostalgic_."

'_Such loverly, loverly, loverly memories…_' The Voice sighed with genuine feeling. _'I remember so fondly the encounter in the Celadon Game Corner—_' Ellen shook her head.

Kyoshi mewed, mentally shivering at the thought of the Cinnabar Key, which had been given to them by Giovanni's Persian, rejected and officially 'neutral'. "I wonder what Persian ever did with his life…he couldn't rot away in the mansion for the rest of his time….or, wait. Maybe he could. He certainly seemed capable of doing so."

"And Miror B., too," said Feolan, nudging the card key with his paw. "What ever happened to that weirdo? Died in the fire?"

(In fact, Miror B. had survived the deadly fire. After jumping from one of the windows, landing in the ocean, and using his immense hairstyle as a floatation device, he drifted across the Kanto Sea. Upon reaching the Strait of Blackthorn, he climbed ashore and built a house for himself using the little money he had left. Feeling the deep need to repent, he shaved his afro off and become a Buddhist monk. After a bit of that, he had the feeling it was not his cup of tea. Therefore, he became a Mormon converter. Then a traveling Christian. Then a Taoist. Then a Jewish hazzan. Than a Protestant choral master. Than a Satanist, an Odinist, a Pagan, a Jehovah's Witness, a Wiccian, a Baptist, a Hindu, a Mennonite, a Confucist, and finally gave up and remained Atheist. But that was another story.)

"We should display these to the world!" Phil crowed cheerfully, clapping his fins in joy. "First, we should show them off right there—on the desk, so everyone can be proud!"

Ellen quickly gathered them up before depositing them in her bedside table drawer. "Or we could put them in here." She pushed in the drawer with unusual force, not wanting to see the other item in it.

"You mean, with the FS necklace?" Kyoshi sighed, as if reading her thoughts. "You can't forget about it, you know. What are you going to do with it?"

"I dunno…" the young Anti-Trainer shrugged guiltily, wincing at her sore shoulder. Setting down her crutches and carefully sitting on the bed, she opened the drawer again and from it took the FS necklace, dangling it in the air on its chain. "I'll think of something…"

The Voice mocked, '_Of course you'll think of something. But what? Is that…thing going to rot away in the drawer? Ellen, I don't usually mean to help, but you should do something about it._'

The albino Mightyena asked, "Have you told your mom about it yet?"

The young Anti-Trainer shook her head, coming from her revere. "What, about the bone? About who made it?"

Feolan nodded.

"No," she said bluntly, offering a snort of morbid laughter. "And there's probably not gonna be a 'yet'. Why would she want to hear? She's already…really sad, and I don't want her to get even more sad."

Charles denied his urge to correct Ellen's grammar. "Right, I suppose that some things aren't meant to be said." He flicked his eyes at her skeptically. "Everyone did seem a bit surprised when you mentioned that Mew died."

"Yes…" Kyoshi quietly leapt up next to Charles. "Hearing that a 'God' died would surprise some people. But that still begs the question…if Mew wasn't the God of Kanto…" Kyoshi's thought trailed off, the feline furrowing her brow.

"Well, Phil began slowly, "_Crazy_ Uncle Jeffery says that he's God."

There was a pause.

"Your uncle is nuts. And besides, who would keep Kanto in order?" asked Feolan.

"Uh…the government?" Ellen asked, truly curious. Political discussions were always much too complicated for her, but as a citizen of Kanto, she _had_ to be concerned.

The answer was that Kanto had very little government. As Phil had observed before, the Elite Four took the position of a pseudo-government, but never used their power to inflict anything good onto Kanto, such as the economic or stock market boosts. They never inflicted anything bad, either. The region was caught in a void, poised in confusion.

Yet no one could answer Ellen's question, as there were three quick taps on the door. All heads swiveled to the entryway as three beings entered: Jack, Brendan, Dwayne, and Gwen.

"H-hello!" Jack said brightly, grinning at his friends. The boy had grown much taller and stronger; his growth had been severely stunted when he was in Team Rocket. Gwen offered a slight smile and a nod. For a Haunter, she was incredibly elegant.

Brendan also gave a terse nod, looking around the room. "Very nice, very nice. You four— off the bed!" he instructed, and Charles, Phil, and Kyoshi obeyed slightly unwillingly. Ellen, on the other hand, frowned at him.

"You can't tell me what to do in my own room," the girl said, but still moved from the bed to the ground. Jack sat down beside her, as did the Pokémon. Seeing the open spot, Brendan and Dwayne jumped on the bed to cuddle. "And since when did you like talking to us better than the adults?"

"Ellen, Ellen, Ellen," the writer shook his head sadly, stroking his small goatee. "I've always liked you. You're so awkward and loveable. Even when I first met you, I liked you. Of course, it didn't help when you threatened to castrate me—"

"_W-w-what_?" Jack gasped, appalled. Most of the other males in the room looked nervous.

'_Oh, wonderful_!' The Voice cried with exuberance.

"Wait, silly me," the writer said jovially, laughing. "She actually threatened to _attack_ me, not castrate. Must have slipped, sorry."

"I w-was g-g-going to s-say," Jack said in relief.

"You deserved it, anyway," Ellen muttered, the tension in the room instantly relaxing.

The writer shrugged, weighing his options. "Yes, yes…I know I deserved it…but I didn't know that Kaden was actually dead— wait, enough of this. It's depressing. Anyhoo, we came here because they asked us to leave."

"And w-we only s-st-tayed t-to eavesdrop," Jack added.

"My favorite pastime," Dwayne murmured, toying with a lock of his boyfriend's white hair. "Besides, they were starting to get to some incredibly interesting things, like Team Rocket."

His opposite smiled at him. "Who wasn't as evil as Team Magma," he added, matter-of-factly. When earning confused glances all around, he chuckled. "Oh, of course. I never told you all about my…" he paused. "_Very epic and prose-worthy _adventurein Hoenn, I the selfless hero"

"Prose-worthy adventure?" snorted Charles disbelievingly. "How so? Few adventures are prose-worthy enough unless they're fictional."

Ellen quickly translated the comment to Brendan, who smiled and nodded thoughtfully. "So right you are, my friend. Yet, I hope this adventure is prose-worthy enough to write down. Now, let's see…ah, it began in Littleroot—"

"Before we met," Dwayne added.

"Ah, yes, before we met. I had decided to break from my scholarly duties, feeling a great need to experience the world. Thus, I began another Pokémon journey and set off into the great, complex land of Hoenn. For a bit, I solely concentrated on besting myself in Pokémon gyms, relying only on badges, small metallic things, for victory. But that was no way to live as a trainer, I realized, and I felt the great need for another kind of adventure— something…much deeper and more important." He paused, making sure everyone was still listening to him. "It's seemed my wish had been granted, because as the Petalburg Woods rose up before me, dark and lush, I had the ill luck of meeting a…_Team Magma Grunt_!"

Dwayne gasped. "No! You don't say!"

Ellen's eyes widened. "There're more teams?"

"Of course," the writer responded, surprised that she did not know. "Did you honestly think there was only Team Rocket?"

"Uh…well…I sort of hoped."

"I d-did…" Jack admitted sheepishly.

Feolan shrugged. "Maybe…"

"There's so much evil in the world, I knew from the start." Kyoshi shook her head sadly.

Charles growled, "I had a feeling."

"I KNOW EVERYTHING!" Phil howled.

"As a ghost, I can see things others can't see." With one of her vaporous, purple claws, Gwen gestured out the window. "I can see things that happen in other places. Right now, I could find a Team Magma Grunt milling about." Or Team Aqua, Team Galaxy, Team Snagum, Team Cipher, or Team Go-Rock, she added silently, knowing that the Anti-Trainer would be greatly disturbed if she knew that more Teams were lurking.

'_Even I did not know_…_'_ The Voice murmured, shocked.

"Oh, Ellen, and…everyone else," Brendan continued, "In regions like these, you can't hope. You either know its true or know it's not. And even if you do hope, something is going to pull you in one direction. Am I right?"

"Yeah…I guess…but some things are real hard to figure out. So you can hope," the girl said.

The writer raised an eyebrow, eager to return to his narrative. "Such as…?"

"What Kanto is going to become," Charles offered.

Ellen nodded. "Right. Or who's God. Or what happens to ghosts— if they stay in the place they died, or if they float away…besides Gwen."

The Haunter smiled, but Kyoshi frowned. "The ghosts I saw were stationary, or at least in the same area they were when they died," the Persian said slowly. "But the Psychic trainer in the Viridian Gym told me differently. He said there were levels…levels of death? I'm not sure…his speech was so vague, it was hard to decipher what he actually meant. Gwen?"

"Interesting," the ghost said thoughtfully. "I suppose it's different for humans and Pokémon, but for the humans I've seen, several things can happen. First and foremost, they go to _Nothing_. Then, they can stay where they died if they don't possess enough psychic or otherworldly strength and can only go a certain amount of miles away…six, I believe. They can travel around all of Kanto if their mind is strong enough; I suppose that's what most dead trainers would want to do. They can manifest a part or all of themselves into the living if need be, and if strong enough. They can be reborn, though I'm not sure how. The levels of death, though…perhaps it had something to do with having a connection to the living. Ghosts can contact the living, as some of the living can contact ghosts, but it depends on their power in life, as well as in death. I know it sounds unfair, but if you had more power in life…well, you have more power in death. It's only logical; there aren't any special benefits in dieing, I'm sorry to say."

"Figures," mumbled the generally pessimistic Feolan. "I always knew it."

"Well, you should of, considering Dark types have a better knowledge of the afterlife and death," the ghost said gently.

"Oh. Really?" the albino Mightyena blinked, confused. "Uh…not me. Maybe it's something to do with my fur…"

Gwen smirked at him. "Fur? Hmm. Quite possibly. Quite like Shiny Pokémon have a connection with the living, nocturnal Pokémon have a connection with the dead…and I'm not sure about albino Pokémon."

Feolan shook his head. "This stuff is comin' really fast…now I know why everybody wants to stay alive so bad…"

"…unless you're extremely powerful in life," added Charles. "I suppose that's why so many people are temped to commit suicide But they would have to know what death is like, then. Which they don't, unless they've had any acquaintance with the occult or any séances."

Brendan, who had been listening in vain, asked Ellen to translate. She did so, omitting some points due to forgetfulness. The writer nodded while she spoke, and after she finished, he pulled a small box from his pocket. Opening it with his fingernail, he slid the inner box out to carefully take a cigarette. Before lighting it and putting it to his lips, he offered some to everyone. "Anyone? Straight from Hoenn; very good."

"Can't, I'm too beat up," Ellen said. After the Headquarters, she had tried a cigarette once or twice— it was a very nice way to calm her nerves, but smoking in her condition did her no good.

Feolan took one, but realized with sadness that he had no thumbs, and his teeth crushed the paper cylinder, causing him to cough and hack wildly. Besides Dwayne, everyone else declined.

"Well, all right." He inhaled and exhaled the smoke for a while, holding the cigarette between his middle and index finger. Finally, he said, "I could always use an Ouija board."

"F-f-for wuh-what?" Jack asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow.

"To see if I could communicate with Collin." After his father's death, Brendan had developed a habit of referring to him by his first name. No one really knew why. "It's worth something to try. But I need at least one more person to help me."

Dwayne raised his hand excitedly, but everyone looked at Ellen.

"Come on, Ellen," Phil said excitedly. "You can try to talk to your dad!"

"Uh…I don't know how to play…Ouahjuha boards," the girl admitted guiltily.

"Wee-ya," corrected Gwen.

She nodded at Dwayne. "Yeah, Ouija. But I think he knows how to play…wait, do you even _have_ an Ouija bored?"

"No. But I can always buy one. I'm sure the Celadon Department Store sells them." Having no place to clean the ash away from his cigarette, he stood up, opened the window, and sat on the ledge, tapping the cigarette out the window. Cold air rushed into the room. "Although Collin and I wouldn't have much to speak about. 'How are you doing, son'? 'Oh, fine. How is the afterlife?' 'Oh, nothing much. Dark. Smells like rotten fish. Can't talk to anyone living, really.' 'Really?' 'Why, yes.'" The young man signed and rolled his eyes. "Not much fun being a dead scientist, now is it? I suppose when I die, being a writer will be much more fun. Many more stories to tell…oh, speaking of that, I never finished _my_ story of Hoenn! Now, on with it…"

Ellen only half listened, musing over Brendan's pessimistic outlook on life and death. But his story about Hoenn was interesting to say the least. It was less violent than hers; she liked that quite a lot. In a slightly odd turn of events, Brendan had met Team Magma, a rather unorthodox Team bent of sucking Hoenn of all its water in order to make room for land Pokémon and humans, as opposed to their opposites, Team Aqua.

For two weeks the writer traveled, following close behind his 'ultimate enemy'— Maxie, Leader of Team Magma. Brendan recorded every step that he took, every town or city that he visited. An account that even surpassed the great work of Tostoevsky resulted, and was to be published soon after he had finished his account and his adventure by defeating Team Magma in an epic battle that would certainly thrill critics and trainers alike.

Although…things did not all turn out. As Brendan and Team Aqua were thwarting Team Magma's attempt to use a volcano to their own liking, the writer was crowded by a large group of Magma Grunts, intent on roughing him up a bit. Their fun took a sour turn, though, as one pushed Brendan aside, where the young man staggered back…and tumbled into Maxie, knocking him off the edge of the volcano and sending him screaming into the lava below. The citizens of Hoenn had exulted joyfully and Team Aqua, more benevolent than their counterparts, called Brendan a savior. It was exactly what he had wanted, an adventure, some experience, just like Ellen—although he had taken use of his efforts, not become a scared recluse. To be a writer and a hero… 'Other Vocals, Other Area', a collection of short stories he had been working on, was set to be published in two weeks. With his newfound celebrity status, book sales would increase dramatically…it was exactly what he wanted.

Brilliant.

OoO

Once the Anti-Trainers had shooed Jack, Brendan, Gwen, and Dwayne away, they relaxed slightly, knowing that they could speak without having their words repeated.

"No offence to them," said Frieda, casting a look at the stairwell, "but I'm glad they're gone. At least Brendan, of course. Who knows what he'd write up…I don't want him 'documenting' everything we say."

Russell nodded. "Especially because you were going to ask us something…?" he paused, glancing at Miguel.

"Right, something about…oh, you know. Kaden," said Miguel rather reluctantly. He spoke as if the subject was taboo.

"Ah." Fredia nodded and folded her hands across her lap. "Yes. I regret not asking you earlier, but I was a bit hesitant…concerning the very dire circumstances. But now that we're all back together, I wondered and wondered if…well…if any of you had known that Kaden had left for the Team Rocket Headquarters…no one knew at first, of course, but when I called you…"

Russell could remember it clearly; Fredia had sounded concerned, but not in a frenzy. He had instantly suspected of the man trying some attempt to finish off his enemies, but he quickly dismissed of this idea. Kaden would not be that reckless. Or would he? He had cared for his family…but his personality seemed to get in the way. "No…no. I'm not sure about Marylyn, but I…I didn't know. Not me." Yes, but after Kaden had not been found for a while…Anti-Trainers did not just disappear. They died, and not peacefully. Old age was a blessing, one more year was pure luck—it was a surprise that people even joined. But the stories one would tell…it was enough to make even a Rocket join, like himself. Protecting Kanto, vengeance against your oppressors, tales of glory…and what about the greater good? Ha, there was no greater good left in Kanto, it had left when Giovanni showed the citizens that 'greater good' meant 'having your limbs torn off and your jugular vein sliced open'. And many, many other worse things.

"Oh, oh…well, thank you, anyway," she responded quietly, sounding disappointed. "I'm sorry if I seemed suspicious, it's just that…well, now that everything has been turned upside down…"

"…it was a better time to ask questions?" Miguel guessed.

"No, not necessarily. I just want everything to piece together again."

"I'm afraid you'd have to go back in the past to do that," Miguel commented solemnly. "Do you ever wish you could go back?"

There was a pause. "Yes and no. Going back would mean having Kaden, Marylyn, Samara, and a mess of other people back. But that could change the outcome of now. Team Rocket could still be thriving. Kaden could still die—and what would Ellen become? I owe most of her success to you two."

"Us two?" Russell asked dubiously. "I hardly did anything but put her in stupid situations and fail to tell her how dangerous Team Rocket was. She was fighting Giovanni in the Headquarters, I wasn't. If anything, it was Miguel who invited her to join."

"Awww, right." The young man smiled, pleased to have been given credit. "At the exit of Mt. Moon, I remember. Although now that I know her, I'm surprised that she even accepted. I'm guessing that she was just happy to see benevolent life after her audience with Team Rocket in Mt. Moon. Which wasn't a very bad audience at all. They seemed so pathetic compared to Silph Co."

Russell balanced his head in one hand. His other arm was still weak and needed fixing. "Silph Co. Don't remind me."

"Was it…really that bad?" asked Fredia.

Russell's grave expression partly answered the question, but he still said gruffly, "Yes, it was _that_ bad. For one thing, Jack was taken. Another, I lost my arm to Giovanni's godamn Rhydon. After two years of confusion, it was the first big mission without Kaden…we needed him to lead, now that I think about it. That was it. Without him, we declined…and then went out with a bang." He paused and said, "Like Team Rocket. Now that Giovanni has…disappeared somewhere, they're gone. Disbanded."

"Er, the only bad thing is that we have no police force now," Miguel cut in wryly, recalling that Giovanni had placed Rocket operatives across Kanto as the police. "I suppose it was a good idea on Giovanni's part…in the beginning, at least. Of course, when they saw the smoking building," he made a slicing motion across his throat. "Suicide. I suppose they were so obsessed with their cause that they had to die with it."

"I'd believe it. Most Rockets were incredibly strong in their beliefs, usually the executives and commanders," said Russell. "Me, on the other hand, I wasn't exactly what you'd call a 'model Grunt'—"

There the conversation was interrupted, because the front door swung open and a boy of about nine or ten came scurrying into the living room. Stopping and catching his breath, he said cheerfully, "Hi, Miss Adler! Hi, other people!" The boy was dressed in a red and silver sweatshirt, yellow shorts, and carried a large backpack. His black hair was covered by a yellow and black baseball cap turned backwards, and on his wrist was a Pokégear. His other arm was slung in a cast.

"Hello there, Oliver," Fredia said with a small smile, ignoring that he loudly interrupted the conversation. "Ellen is upstairs with her friends; I'm sure it'd be fine to go up." She frowned when she saw his cast. "What happened?"

'Oliver's' grin faded. "Oh, uh—" the boy stopped, as if deciding against telling her. "Just a stupid accident. Nothing much. But…the real reason I came was to see if Brendan was here. His mom said that he was here, and I really want him to sign my book…" He rattled his backpack for emphasis.

"Well, I'm sure he won't mind."

Oliver nodded vigorously, smiled again, and bounced up the stairs, but not before pointing at Russell's metal arm and exclaiming, "_Whoa_! That's, like, the coolest thing I've ever seen! I want one just like it when I grow up."

"I'm sure you do," the man muttered bitterly after the boy had left.

"Who was that?" Miguel asked.

"Oliver Kin. He and his mother moved here recently, but he went to Jhoto to start his trainer journey. When he's here for visits, though, he sticks to Ellen like glue. I think I made a mistake when I told him she had traveled around Kanto for a bit…I just hope she doesn't fill his head with…Anti-Trainer propaganda, or something."

"Propaganda? Hmph!" Russell crossed his arms and frowned at his friend, although it was not very serious. "No Anti-Trainer has ever used propaganda! Only Team Rocket!"

"Oh, believe me. Kaden particularly enjoyed informing people of the Anti-Trainers and the evils of Team Rocket when we went to parties. Don't think he was as devoted as you." She laughed. "And…don't think we're the opposite of Team Rocket, either. I know you too well. Even though Anti-Trainers were totally against them, we couldn't help but use similar tactics to retaliate."

Miguel raised his eyebrows and then furrowed his brow. "You're right. So…I suppose every group has similar tactics…which means that we could never fully be against Team Rocket, because in reality, we behave similarly to them. Every opposing force behaves similarly to one another. They use written propaganda, we use verbal propaganda. They invade our headquarters, we invade theirs. They had a leader—"

Fredia regretted even saying anything, sighing deeply. "Enough of this, please. It's over, and that's that. We don't need to carry things from the past to the present," the woman said quietly, although loud enough for Miguel to be silence.

Although, all of them knew very well that despite the long battle between the Anti-Trainers and Team Rocket had ended, things would never be the same. Things would continue to be effected, uprisings would occur in the few surviving Team Rocket Grunts, chaos would ensure.

And only did Russell know that something else, something very bad was liable to happen—he was not positive, but things did run in families. Even the most unorthodox things.

OoO

Meanwhile, Oliver had left the 'silly adults' and continued up the stairs, anxious to meet the famous writer. He was not usually in Kanto, and this could possibly be his last visit in a while—recently, he had seen odd people in Jhoto, and he wanted to investigate what was happening. They were so strange, dressed all in black, and the women (he blushed) did not wear much besides a short shirt and a tank top. He had not told the usually grumpy Ellen about the black-clothing people, from fear that she would become even grumpier like the last time he had mentioned people like that, seeing them walking around Saffron city.

He liked Ellen; she was fun to play video games with and always had a story to tell. She was one of his few friends, and they had many things in common—but the oddest similarity was that both of their fathers were not present. Oliver's father had gone on a Pokémon journey and was to return soon (he had sent him a letter), but when asked, Ellen said, 'it was a long story that you'll never hear. For a while'. He had often wondered what the story was, and if it had anything to do with her broken legs or scars. Maybe he could ask after getting Brendan's signature—_maybe_.

Upon reaching the door, he quietly turned the doorknob and walked in with his usual spirited grin. Ellen, another straw-haired boy, a Haunter, and Ellen's Pokémon were playing cards on the floor. The window was open; by the window were the girl's crutches and empty backpack, and Brendan and Dwayne were…the boy's grin faded and he blushed, looking sheepish.

The couple was kissing feverishly, in a way that was hardly fit for young or inexperienced eyes. The others did not seem to care, though, and carried on with their game. Oliver averted his eyes, cleared his throat and asked nervously, "Er…um…Mr. Birch?"

Everyone looked up from what they were doing, including Brendan and Dwayne. "_This is why we lock the door_," muttered Charles under his breath.

"Hmm? What? What? What? Oh! Excuse me." After hastily pulling away from the kiss and neatening his shirt and pants, there was another pause as he tossed the cigarette out the window. "Yes, yes," the writer said quickly, coughing. "Now, who are you and why are you here?"

Deciding to ignore the awkward moment, the boy resumed smiling and held out his hand in greeting. The writer stared at it as if it was a dead Magicarp. "My name is Oliver, sir. Oliver Kin. I'm Ellen's friend. I'm her neighbor."

"Really?" Brendan asked, looking away in thought. "I used to be her neighbor. Now I'm just plain old 'writer'. Hmm. Interesting. So! Why you came…?"

"Well, I've always wanted to meet the person who wrote 'In Warm Blood', so when I heard that you were at Ellen's house—"

The young man beckoned him forward. "Ah! A book signing? I would be delighted. A fan of my book, eh? Not too many of these days, with some other old book becoming so popular now…what was it called? Published at least ten years ago… 'Mysteries of the Earth'? Something to that effect. Brilliant but long. Written under a pseudonym, I believe. Now, out with the book, then!" Oliver nodded and produced a thick, ornate-looking book from his backpack. As he handed it to Brendan, the writer asked, raising his eyebrows, "How old are you?"

"Ten, sir."

"Ten? You're quite advanced in your reading. I was only reading Viktor Hugeo at the time."

"I ruh-r-read as muh-much as I c-could," Jack said, scratching the back of his head. "It h-helped me with my s-s-stutter."

"I didn't read," muttered Ellen, not looking up from her card game. "And I still don't."

"Not a very good influence," Brendan muttered to himself as he signed the book with a flourish. "There."

Oliver grinned hugely, taking the book from his hands as though it was some priceless, fragile object. "Thank you!"

Ellen finally looked up from the card game, noticing the boy's arm was in a cast. Puzzled, she frowned and asked, "Fell down or somethin', Oliver?"

The boy shook his head as he stuffed the book away. He set down his backpack, sitting on the ground next to Kyoshi. "Not exactly…"

"Oh?" asked Dwayne, the two boyfriends eagerly listening in.

"Well…see…I didn't tell your mom anything, Ellen, because I was afraid that she'd convince my mom to stop my journey. Moms," he sighed exasperatedly. "They don't know anything."

"Yeah," Ellen agreed dryly. Charles snickered.

"But, I guess I can tell you." He released another sigh. "It started when I was getting my first Pokémon in New Bark Town. Edward, my Totodile. On my way to the lab, I saw this other boy staring in the window. He was probably a few years older than I was, and taller—he had red hair, and it went down to his shoulders! Kind of cool, actually. So I went to say hello, in case he was another trainer and needed some help, but he pushed me back and told me to leave him alone…so I did and I went to get Edward."

"That's how you broke your arm?" Feolan asked, snickering slightly. "Loser."

"Uh…is that how you broke your arm?" asked Ellen, roughly translating. The Pokémon giggled.

"What? No, 'course not! All I got were scratched knees. The real thing happened about a week ago, and Professor Elm had called me, really worried. He said someone had stolen another Pokémon from his lab…and when he described him, he looked exactly like the guy I saw…"

Something flickered in Ellen's mind, and she looked at him alertly. "He was _stealing_ a Pokémon?"

"So Professor Elm said," he explained, not perturbed by the girl's odd look. "Here…I'll explain the rest."

_Enter Jhoto, in leaving Cherrygrove City. It was evening, the sky aglow with a pink tint that was slowly being devoured by gray storm clouds. A small, cold wind had picked up, and most of the citizens had retired to their houses. The streets and sidewalks were empty, save for the occasional Rattata that scurried past or the Hoothoot that fluttered by. The only human form that still existed outside was Oliver, clutching his Pokégear tightly in his shaking hand. He was too nervous to find shelter in the welcoming Pokémon Center. The news he heard from Elm had only fueled his anxiety to the point that he decided he must go back to see if Professor Elm and the final Pokémon were not hurt._

_Knowing that it would rain soon, Oliver decided upon taking a more forested path back to New Bark—the path was too well hidden for anyone not acquainted with the land to find, and the trees would shield him from most of the rain. After looking around him furtively, he crept onto the path and began at a brisk walk. He was half-tempted to call Edward out for protection, but the Totodile did not fully trust him yet, and the storm would probably scare him away. And without any Pokémon…er…that would not be good._

_Rain began to fall, and Oliver mentally thanked himself for choosing the wooded path. Being wet and mugged at the same time would not be a pleasant experience. Neither would being mugged at all, actually._

_His mood seemed to descend completely, though, as pounding footsteps—the sound of running—rang out ahead. Oliver stopped dead, frightened and close to crying, when he turned around and prepared to run in the opposite direction. With that, he and the other figure collided, both uttering yelps of surprise. The two hit the ground and instantly began scrambling to escape one another in a flurry of leaves. The other figure's large mass had caused Oliver's breathing to subside, but as he caught his breath and stood up, he saw the redhead standing a bit away._

_The Redhead looked more fearful than threatening, but his sharp features muted the fright slightly, and his dark eyes partially hidden beneath scraggily hair only made him look knowing. There was obviously money in his family or possession; thick navy pants coupled with a red and black coat. He clutched a Pokéball in his hand._

_"You…you're the one who stole the Pokémon," Oliver said blankly, instantly regretting his stupid and obvious comment. Something came over him, though, seeing the thief— he was only about four, five years older than he was, and he did not look much stronger. After all, Edward was probably stronger than the Pokémon the Redhead had. Probably. "You…you…listen, you just committed a crime. If you give the Pokémon to me, I'll let you go."_

_Redhead's expression grew surprised that he was allowing him to pass…for a price, of course. Yet, he shook his head and spoke lowly, as if something was about to jump out at him any second. "No._ No._ Just let me pass. I just…I just need to, all right? You don't understand."_

_"Don't understand?" Oliver stared at him with a disbelieving expression. Why had he been so scared of the thief before? He was nothing more than…than another boy like himself! "It doesn't matter. You're stealing, and that's a crime. Now, if you just give me the Pokémon…"_

_"I don't think so." His tone became abruptly colder, harsher. Now he stepped forward, jutting his chin out slightly. The intimidation worked, as Oliver grew less confident and stumbled back. The Redhead became docile again. "I don't want to fight. I don't make anymore of this. Just let me go before I call out my Pokémon."_

_"Then do it, fine then. Let's have a Pokémon battle." Oliver straightened out his back a bit, feeling particularly suicidal at that moment. Yet he felt that he could win the Pokémon battle. Edward was a competent battler. He proceeded to bring out his Totodile, when Redhead put up a hand for him to stop._

_"Wait." Redhead mentally cursed himself for convincing Oliver that he indeed had a…er…conscious Pokémon. In stealing the Chikorita, Professor Elm had released it in hopes that it would protect itself. No such luck, though, as Redhead defeated it with his Sandshrew, who also fainted in the battle. "I'm going to try and explain this in a way that is…peaceful. This was one of the last requests of my late father to me. If I fail to do this, I will feel _very_ guilty."_

_"But that's not it," Oliver protested, a bit more sympathetic than before. "I'm sorry, but I'm not asking you to turn yourself in. I'm just saying— besides, you look well off in money. You could get a Chikorita from anywhere else legally."_

_Redhead stared at him before shaking his head in disbelief. "I really don't understand you people." He suddenly released an angry shout and tackled Oliver, pinning him to the ground with his knees trapping his torso. He brought his fist down to punch Oliver on the face, but the boy jerked his head away and pushed Redhead off him. The two boys fought in a childish way, fraught with curled fists and kicks. Oliver was quite stronger for a frail boy like himself, and managed to catch Redhead on the nose with one of his fists, resulting in a gush of blood. In a matter of seconds, Redhead returned the favor by bloodying Oliver's nose._

_"Criminal!" howled Oliver._

_"Why…don't you people leave me alone?" Redhead gasped between breaths, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. He retreated, stumbling backwards. "I haven't done anything! I'm not a criminal! It wasn't _me_. It wasn't me."_

_"What are you talking about?" Oliver screamed, jumping up as well._

_It was then, oddly, that Redhead's eyes began to tear. "HE'S DEAD! Don't you understand? HE'S DEAD! It's over! I didn't do anything wrong! You people already got him!"_

_Oliver, curious, stepped forward. "Over? What's—"_

_Suddenly, in a paradox of terrible rage, Redhead lunged forward and seized Oliver's arm, twisting it—twisting it grotesquely, twisting it as he was taught. He did not want to use force, but after being provoked…well, he had given the other boy a fair warning. Thinking this over as he jerked the arm in an odd position so that it snapped with a loud crack, he realized that Oliver was now sobbing openly, frozen with pain. Out of surprise and slight disgust, Redhead released his arm to find that Oliver's elbow rested near his back, with the rest of his arm jutting downward._

_Redhead stood for a moment, feeling guilty. "All right. If you want your…_friends_ to get me, than fine. I don't care; they won't find me. They can look all over Jhoto if they want." With that, he told him his name and turned around, walking away to Cherrygrove city…_

"That's my story. That's how my arm broke," Oliver finished, looking at Brendan to see if the writer approved of his narrative. The young man smiled and gave him a thumbs-up. The boy beamed.

Jack frowned. "That w-w-was violent."

Ellen stared at Oliver. "His name?"

"What?" the boy asked.

"His name. Did….he tell you his name?"

"Oh…right. He did."

"So…what was it?"

"Silvano. It was Silvano."

OoO

Two days later, Brendan and Dwayne had said goodbye to everyone, packing up their luggage and preparing to leave for Littleroot Town with Brendan's mother. It was a tearful leave, mostly for Brendan, who knew that he would not be returning for sometime in order to write another book and correspond with other authors. He offered many hugs and well wishes, even going as far as to loan Ellen some books that he had read, although the girl had looked slightly confused at the selections: she doubted that she could read the behemoth of _Anna Carenana_, let alone know what it was. Brendan assured her that she would enjoy it very much after she overcame the poetic sentencing and massive vocabulary.

Thus, Brendan Birch left from Ellen's life. Although his impression upon her was somewhat odd and muddled, the girl did feel that she missed his presence after returning to her room with his Pokémon. After briefly reading the back of _Anna Carenana_, which, to Ellen, was about some woman jumping from one man to another one, she tossed it on the desk and pulled out some sort of hand-held gaming system from her pocket. Charles picked up the book and began reading it with mild interest.

"I envy you," Kyoshi said playfully, reading over the dragon's shoulder. "I wish I could read."

Charles shrugged. "I could teach you if you wanted. I don't think it would be _that_ hard…the human language is a lot of nonsense is you ask me. Squiggles make up what they speak and write. It's odd. Ellen, don't you think speaking Pokémon is easier?"

"Huh?" Ellen asked in the dialect of Cubone and Marowak.

"Exactly," the reptile continued. "And we understand each other, no matter what species we are. Now, human, on the other hand…" with a claw, he pointed to the simplest word, 'the'. "This is the word 'the'; used commonly. Spelled…" he paused for a moment, knowing that there was no way to translate the alphabet into the language of Pokémon. "Er…never mind."

Kyoshi looked disappointed. "Oh…well, I suppose being psychic is enough for one Persian." With one last glance at the book, she turned away to see what Ellen was doing. With that, her ears twitched slightly as she heard something. "Someone is coming."

And indeed, they were. Seconds later, there was a knock on the door. Ellen grumbled some sort of welcome, and Russell poked his head in the half-open doorway. "Uh…the kid who likes my arm wants to come up."

Ellen looked up from her game and frowned at him. "The kid who likes your arm?"

"Er, Oliver, I think." He shook his head. "Anyway, he's leaving later today, and he wanted to say goodbye. So…I'm guessing it's all right if he comes up…"

"Yeah, it's fine. But wait a sec, I gotta ask you something." Ellen set her video game down.

In the middle of turning to go downstairs, Russell flinched mentally. First Fredia demands a suspicious question, now Ellen…damn. He turned back to the room. "Yes…?"

"What's FS mean?" she asked simply.

"What?" the older Anti-Trainer asked, slightly taken aback. It came as such a random comment.

"I said, what does FS mean? When I asked you about it before, you said you didn't know anything…and that was sort of half-lying, 'cuz I think you know what it means. It's such a weird name, Fiery Sapphire, and I know it has something to do with my mom and dad." She paused, hesitant to tell him the rest of the story, but ultimately deciding he should know. "And Giovanni knew about it, too. He made the necklace. Uh, _trophy_, I guess."

"_What_?" he asked again, stepping into the room. "Trophy? You didn't tell us this before!"

She shrugged and frowned—for the first time in a while, Russell could see the resemblance between Kaden and Ellen. "I didn't want my mom to get too upset. She was already upset enough. And you looked pretty bad."

"Right, well…"

"Yeah, right, well. Whatever. Just after Giovanni told me that he killed dad, he gave me back the FS necklace." She stopped, chewing on her lower lip. "And…and he said that he made the necklace out of his…uh, skull. And then he wanted to give it to my mom, but Mew took it and put it in a drawer in our house."

'_Pity,_' The Voice said dully. '_It would have been more interesting if Fredia had received it._'

Russell stared at her, horrified. Giovanni, the bastard. It's too bad he was dead; Ellen had told them with a mixed look of joy and insanity on her face. "Uh…oh, shit. I didn't know, I'm sorry…er…the name Fiery Sapphire wasn't a name for one person. It was Kaden and Fredia, together. I never knew why Morton made up the name— Morton was an early Anti-Trainer, he was great. Except a bunch of Grunts jumped him. Anyway, though, he saw that Kaden and Fredia were acting…_friendly_ towards each other. They were always together. So he was joking around one day, right, and decided to make a name up. Sapphire was Fredia's codename, and Kaden had liked to be called his former college nickname, Pyro…which didn't sound too nice with 'Sapphire', so I guess he changed it into 'Fiery'."

"So…" Ellen frowned, her face twisting slightly in confusion. "You mean that my codename was, like, my mom and dad's...whatever you call it. Joint name?"

"I think it'd be the same as saying 'Ashy' for Ash and Misty," Charles explained, still deep into reading the novel.

Russell nodded thoughtfully, a bit surprised. "I never thought of it that way. Shit. I don't know how Marylyn picked the name out for you. Maybe she knew, maybe she didn't. She always did have a sick sense of humor."

'_I hope the joint name only means that they were a couple_,' The Voice purred lecherously. '_Not anything…else_. _Heehee_.'

"Well…thanks for telling me, anyway," Ellen said to Russell, ignoring the giggling The Voice. "I guess Oliver can come up now, if he still wants too."

"I'm guessing he does…" Russell disappeared from view, walking downstairs.

"I can't believe you got that name," Feolan said disbelievingly to Ellen.

"I can't believe Anna leaves him!" gasped Charles, still reading. His face fell slightly, remembering Anna the Charmander. "Poor Anna…"

Phil asked, "Who? The book character?"

"No. The Charmander I met."

"Oh…right…" his head sunk, then popped up curiously. "Hey, how'd she die again?"

Before anyone else could shoot a glare or inflict pain upon the Swampert, Oliver, as usual, burst into the room without any warning whatsoever. Fortunately, nothing awkward was occurring, so the boy had no reason to be surprised or embarrassed. He was in his normal outfit again, although he had a large backpack filled almost to the point where it would not zipper. "Hi," he said quietly, placing his backpack down and patting Kyoshi on the head. The Persian tried not to flinch.

Ellen turned the game off once more, now sliding it under her bed. She raised an eyebrow at the backpack. "Uh…are you gonna carry that all around Jhoto? It looks awfully heavy…"

"Um…It'll get lighter," he explained, sitting on the floor. He was oddly timid for his usual cheery self. "Most of it is food. I've calculated how much I'm going to eat by the time I get to Blackthorn City. I can stock up again there for the Pokémon League."

"But…what about detours and stuff? And what if you get stuck? And—"

Oliver quickly interrupted her. "Everything is mapped out in Jhoto. Believe me; you have to t_ry_ to get lost there."

Ellen blinked at him. She had never thought that Pokémon training had become more…straightforward than a Kantonian's mad dash around the region, all while avoiding Team Rocket and staying on the right paths in caves. But Team Rocket did not exist anymore, and the caves had recently been marked with the correct path. Times did change. "Weird. Wish I had that. So. Didja just come up here to say bye, or…" she gestured for him to answer.

"Oh, right." Oliver nodded, then bit his lower lip and looked away while speaking timidly. "Well…remember that time when we were talking about our dads, and you told me about the long story that I'll never hear?"

"Yeah," she said slowly, casting a curious look upon him. "What about it?"

"Well…er…um…it would be nice…"

"You wanna hear it, right?"

Oliver grinned. "Please. I promise not to be scared or tell on you or anything. And I know all the bad words, so it's okay if people cuss."

'_Go ahead, tell him. It won't hurt. At least…it won't hurt _him_!'_ The Voice said.

There was silence, which ended with Feolan laughing a bit as he tried to cover his muzzle with his paw. Oliver, his grin seeping into a smile, finally looked at Ellen whose head was shaking. She sighed. "Look, it's not cussing or being scared or anything—it's just…it's not a ten-year-old story."

"And Brendan's book _is_?" the boy demanded heatedly. "I'm more mature than just some kid!"

She had to admit, Oliver had indeed made a very good point. There was little she could do to contradict him, besides arguing that Brendan's book was a work of fiction—but Ellen, obviously, did not think of this and sighed again, nodding in defeat. "Okay, fine." She beckoned the Pokémon around her, huddling into a small cluster. "Help me remember, guys. Okay…so…I think I got Charles in August, and it was really hot that day…"

She continued, like the other times, although more hesitant than usual. Oliver seemed so…naïve compared to the others she had told it to: Bill, the Anti-Trainers, Abby, her mother, Jack…but this one was only a child. She even tried to omit the more adult parts, but in doing so, she was forced to stop abruptly and weave around it, which Oliver immediately caught and demanded that she tell him the whole thing. She did admit, though, he took the story quite well for a ten-year-old. There were no flinches or cringes, he simply stared at her and listened intently.

In telling the story, Ellen found herself realizing that she could not forget about what she had done—just like hiding the FS necklace away, she was hiding away the painful but obvious past. Feeling deeply guilty, she then realized that she had not yet…sealed Kaden's death, per say. Not a funeral, but a _realization_ stating that he was indeed dead, and would never return no matter how hard she wished. But where, though? Where to conduct it…?

Once she had finished with, 'and then I went home from the hospital,' Oliver had not shown any sort of great surprise or disgust. Instead, he nodded slightly, leaned forward and said quietly and sagely, "Ellen. It's not over. I didn't know who they were before, but I saw Rocket Grunts around Jhoto. _Rocket Grunts_. But don't worry. Don't worry at all, because _I'm_ going to get them. _I'm_ going to finish them off. You shouldn't have to do that any more after what you and your Pokémon went though."

Ellen stared at him, appalled, and rubbed her blind eye. Rockets in Jhoto? A feeling a dread crept upon her. "Hot damn, Oliver, don't do that. Please, don't do that. You're gonna get hurt!"

"But it's what's right," he said frankly, getting his backpack to leave. He was nervous; Ellen seemed so angry. He thought that she would have been happy.

"_No it isn't_!" the girl jumped up, but a shot of pain went up one of her legs and she clenched her teeth. She staggered for a bit and finally sat down on the bed. "You don't _get it_, do you? Yeah, I might have told you some stupid story, but I still can't tell you how I _really felt_ when my legs snapped! How I _really felt_ when I got shot up! How I _really felt_ when Giovanni told me that he frickin' murdered my dad! And…and…you know what I want to say after all of this? After all of that violence and hate and sadness and stuff—I wanna say, Fuck what's right! _Fuck what's right_! You know why? Because _nobody_ should go though what I went though. _Nobody_!"

The Pokémon sat, looking at each other worriedly.

"You can't tell me what to do!" Oliver hissed loudly, scowling at her. "Maybe I chose to do that on my own. I was just trying to help you—make you feel better. Besides, Team Rocket won't be as bad as when you dealt with it—it's _weaker_ now!"

Ellen laughed bitterly. "And just look at me. _Look at me_!" This was a command now, and Oliver did so. "Do you think the journey _make me better_? Made me…grow up or something? _I'm a frickin' skeleton now! I'm wrecked and ugly and scared and CRAZY_!" The girl grinned, and Oliver could not help flinching as he realized that some of her teeth were missing. In fact, she was indeed a wreck. Her voice quieted considerably, but it was shaking. "Team Rocket will _never_ get weaker. It might be small and Giovanni might be dead, but it's still gonna be a _helluva_ lot stronger than you. Especially if Silvano decides to take up the _godamn leadership_—then it'll be bad. As bad as what happened to me." Her tone was wretchedly bitter, and she heaved a shaky sigh.

It was evident that she was going to say no more, and Oliver quickly moved to the doorway. He opened the door to leave, but halfway into closing it, said, "Don't worry, Ellen. I'll finish them." With that, the door shut and Oliver left for Jhoto.

There was a brief silence before Kyoshi finally asked Ellen is she was all right. No response, so she asked again. Finally, Ellen moved to sit on the floor and said shakily, "I just made a kid want to go against Team Rocket. _Want_ to get himself killed. _Nobody_ should go though with that…_nobody_. I…don't…want…more…people…_dead_…" Face twisting slightly, head in her hands, she began to cry.

I will be very frank and say that this was the last time that Ellen ever allowed someone to hear the story. Oliver kept the story very close in secrecy, telling no one else—even when he returned to Jhoto and met Silvano numerous times. Even though Silvano, who had become somewhat of a rival, continued to lament the destruction of the Headquarters and the death of his father, continued to ask who, who had committed such a crime upon an innocent being, Oliver simply shook his head and commenced battling. The only thing that he did, though, was quickly scribble the story down in a notebook while on the Saffron city train, bound for Goldenrod City. It was kept safe in his backpack for sometime, and finally transferred to a large chest. And there it was left for a while, deep in isolation.

Very much forgotten.

OoO

At approximately 12:30 A.M, Ellen looked up from her video game and glanced lazily at the clock near her bed. Pulling her crutches from the side of the chair, she stood up and hobbled across the room, accidentally bumping into the peacefully sleeping Charles. The dragon groggily sat up and stifled a huge yawn, displaying his vicious incisors. He looked about, noticing Ellen opening the window. "Already time to leave?" he asked, not quite awake. Kyoshi, who had been sleeping beside him, gave a characteristic feline stretch.

"Pretty much," the girl said, realizing how cold it was outside. She shivered and moved away from the window, going into her closet and closing the door behind her to change into a pair of jeans, warm shirt, and jacket. "Hey, Charles," she called from behind the door, "d'you think you can still fit through the window?"

The Charizard raised one of his non-existent eyebrows at the large open window as Feolan, fully awake, snickered. "Er…I'm guessing. I'm not fat. Or at least I don't think."

"Awww, Charles, you'll never be fat!" Phil cried randomly, appearing in the doorway. Most nights he spent in the bathroom, sleeping in the bathtub filled with water.

"Thank you?" The dragon gently pushed Phil away as he began hugging him.

Ellen came out of the closet, clad in her new outfit. Without a second glance at the interaction between Charles and Phil, she opened her bedside table drawer and after searching in it for a while, gingerly pulled out the FS necklace. Most activity stopped. It was still the same as it had been before; slightly thick, slightly small, dented, with some of the gold partly scratched off. She was half-tempted to wear it as a necklace again, but she soon came to her senses and quickly stuffed it away in her pants pocket. The scene was over in mere seconds.

"I could write a note to Fredia, if you'd like," Kyoshi offered, a pen coated in a light purple aura already hovering over her head. "Charles could dictate for me." Only yesterday had the Persian been able to levitate small objects again, stating with a pen—it seemed that with enough practice, her powers would return.

Ellen shook her head. "I don't think we need one. We probably won't be gone for more than an hour, two hours, and they'll still be out, probably. Mom said that it'd be late." With Miguel and Jack staying in their motel, the only two left in Pallet Town were Fredia and Russell, so they had decided to go out to dinner at some obscure little place in Pewter City. Fredia, finally feeling that Ellen could stay home alone, left her with a bit of money, telling her not to do anything stupid or get herself in any violent situations. Ellen assured her that she would not. Russell had given his usual gruff lopsided smile, although when he left it seemed to be cheerier than usual.

And with that, she was alone with her Pokémon. It was an odd feeling; she had become so accustomed to moving about with fear in mind that she almost _could not_ relax. After sitting around for a bit, though, the girl had realized that it was a perfect time to have the little death rite for Kaden—Fredia and Russell were not there to question her, and it seemed more appropriate that it was at night, although getting to her destination would be much harder.

The Team Rocket Headquarters had stopped billowing smoke after a week. During that time, if one flew up into the air and was positioned in the right direction, a faint plume of smoke could be seen on the horizon. Charles guessed that it was the more reactive qualities of dragon fire compared to normal fire. Despite it being night and the smoke finally stopping, Ellen and Charles knew what direction it was in, though—they guessed that if they flew far enough, they would see it eventually.

So they roughly charted out a map to estimate where the ruins would be—they were going to rely on Kyoshi, but she gently reminded them again that just because she was Psychic did not mean that she had a good sense of direction. Thus, they estimated that it would be on a secluded island, as they had seen while looking through the windows in the building. The forest around the building may or may have not burned down, but the jagged rocks and cliff below would still be intact.

This sort of preparation of was simple—it was the mental preparation that was challenging for the young Anti-Trainer. It would be quite unpleasant to return there, especially when not all of her injuries had healed yet. It would be unpleasant for Charles as well, considering he felt a deep guilt in setting the building aflame, no matter how many unsavory characters existed in its depths. Yet, they had chosen a time and were going to go through with it.

Now everyone was fully awake, and they soon were ready to depart. Kyoshi had abandoned her note and gently placed the pen on the desk, Phil had ceased in hugging Charles, and Feolan had checked to see that the window would stay open the entire time they were gone. The dragon, still thin from the journey, was indeed able to fit through the window even with his friends on his back—and he preferred the window, as taking off from the ground was harder than starting twenty feet above it.

Pallet Town was not as quiet as it had been in the past, although the small town still held a sense of silence. It was brutally cold and windy at that, causing Charles's flight to be slightly uncomfortable. The group then had second thoughts on flying to the Headquarters, but the dragon assured them that he was fine and continued on at an even quicker pace. The same strong wing beats, the same blinding wind—it was all the same.

Ellen clutched the crude map in her scarred hands, squinting at it intently. It was useless; it was too dark to see anything. She sighed, pausing to fish in her pocket for painkillers and almost pricked herself with her knife. She had not taken her crutches along, and although she was strong enough to stand for a short period, it would hurt to do so. "Hey, Feolan. Can you see where we're supposed to be going?" She held the map in front of him, although the paper continuously flapped in the wind.

"Uh…we don't have a compass on her or anything, so I'm not sure which direction…" he frowned, squinting at the map. "You wrote something, but I can't read it. It's just a big dot…a city, I'm guessing."

"Saffron City?" she asked. "I remember writing something about Saffron…wait, or was it Cinnabar?"

"It's Cinnabar," Phil interrupted brightly, tracing his fin along the paper and leaving a slightly damp trail. "I'm positive!"

Feolan looked at him skeptically. "How'd you know that?"

The Swampert smiled proudly. "While the rest of _you_ losers were unconscious in the Kanto Sea when we all fell, I sort of looked around for a little and saw which was Giovanni was flying."

"We're losers because we were unconscious?" Kyoshi asked acerbically.

"Well, I mean…" Phil shrugged as if it was obvious. "You _should_ know how to swim…"

"_But—but_," the Persian sputtered, and finally sighed, surrendering. "Your logic makes _no_ sense, though…"

Ellen shook her head. "Never mind that stuff. Hey, Charles, d'you think we're over Cinnabar yet?"

Charles snorted. "Doubt it." It was such a different flight from the previous escapade in the area—they were not chasing or being chased, just flying casually. "I think we've got another twenty minutes to go. And then after Cinnabar, there's a long distance…which will take about an hour…I think. And then we need to find the place, which won't be too hard. That'll give you roughly thirty minutes at the HQ. Sound long enough?"

The girl shrugged. "Sure. We can't go any faster, anyway."

"So…what d'you think you're going to do while you're there?" Feolan asked, and after seeing how Kyoshi narrowed her eyes at him, sputtered, "If I, um, can ask, I mean."

"I don't know. Well, maybe I do. But I'm not sure yet…and I have lots of time to think, so I don't have to hurry."

"Speaking of which," Charles continued, "do you have _any_ idea what you're going to do with the Anti-Trainers?"

Ellen blinked. "Huh?"

"Well, unless Kaden says differently in his will, you're the rightful leader to the group of Anti-Trainers. Or, at least what's left of them. Now, I'm not too familiar with human laws, but correct me if I'm wrong in saying that you need to be eighteen in order to take up the responsibility."

"Yeah, I think you might be right…I've only got three more years, though. And my birthday is next month, so that's closer to two more years. And when I get to be eighteen, I might even let Russell still control it."

The Pokémon nodded and agreed, but all of them knew (with the exception of Phil, who was blowing a raspberry and seeing how much saliva flew back at his face) that Russell would die sometime, and Ellen would have to make the decision if either taking up the leadership or disbanding them. On a whim, Kyoshi mused, "Oliver seemed very excited to go after Team Rocket. Just perhaps he could…become an Anti-Trainer…?"

Ellen buried her face in her arms and said in a muffled tone, "I don't wanna talk about it." The Persian withdrew her thoughts for a bit before the girl finally continued, "The first rule I'm making as the new leader is that no one under eighteen can join the Anti-Trainers. Its way to dangerous. Second, we don't have a set base. We move a hell of a lot. Third, we all get weapons. Fourth—"

"You've certainly adapted to the job well," Charles said jokingly, pleased when he got a laugh from Ellen.

"It's not that hard. And I like it. You don't need to be too smart, and you don't need to be good at anything in school." She yawned, frowning when she realized that The Voice had been oddly quiet. Interesting. Perhaps it was weaker when she was tired.

"Hmmm, yes," the dragon answered skeptically, taking a few seconds to look down and calculate where they were. He could hear a roaring below, the ocean, and great, inky figures rose and clashed below. They were above the Kanto Sea, very close to Cinnabar, as realized when Charles saw the faint glow of the Pokémon Center ahead. Then turning his head to look at his comrades, he added, "Well, that isn't fully true. A history of warfare would be particularly useful…er, Ellen?"

"Mmmmemm," mumbled the half-asleep Anti-Trainer.

"Oh." He voiced quieted. "Sorry."

"S'kay…"

"Well, I suppose that ends the discussion," Kyoshi muttered.

"Or concussion!" Phil exclaimed randomly, crying when a speck of saliva flew into his eye.

The Persian frowned. "Please don't rhyme."

"Wait!" Feolan peered down into the abyss, his nocturnal eyes sharp. "We just passed Cinnabar, right? I think we go to the right. Going straight takes us to the Sevii Islands."

"Oh. Really? Well, I suppose you're right…" Charles tilted slightly on the wing and continued right, or east. Meanwhile, the other Pokémon had quieted down and Ellen had fallen asleep.

I am also very sad to say that falling asleep was the worst thing Ellen could have done at the time. As she slept, she began to dream, which quickly spiraled into a nightmare—and not a normal one at that. I pity her very much, because not only was her mind and The Voice at work on her dream, but other forces as well. Forces that she would never expect to meet again…

OoO

The sky rose up in some sort of a dome shape and was overtly dark, overshadowed by mountains of vicious gray clouds from which thin, pale, wraith-like creatures would jump out of, shriek madly, and burrow themselves in the clouds again. Halfway down the sky, large, black walls appeared and caged a small plot of land inside of them. Far below, the ground was coated with a kind of hard, dark mineral that seemed that it almost had veins pulsing through it—green, snake-like veins that tore though the area and up the walls until they erupted from them and formed macabre makeshift trees. There were no buildings or any sort of real life in this odd plain, only the singular figure of Ellen, unbroken and unscarred, standing in the dead center.

And The Voice was there.

'_Welcome, welcome, welcome,'_ The Voice sighed, melancholy creeping in its ethereal tone. _'Welcome to another dream. I'm sorry I have not been around lately. I was burdened by something_.'

Ellen wanted to respond to The Voice, but she was too awed by her surroundings to come up with an answer. She stomped on the ground—yes; a slight vibration ran up her foot and shin. She bit her lip, hard—yes, a bit of pain. Everything here was palpable, unlike so many other dreams. Looking up, she saw a wraith poke its head from a cloud. The otherworldly being had a skull for an emaciated head, stretched with taut gray skin. Eye sockets rested where its eyes were, deep and meaningless. The wraith disappeared moments later.

"Shit…" she mumbled. "Are you sure this is a dream? This is…real. Really real; like I'm not dreaming.

The Voice could not help but utter a dark chortle. '_Really_ _real, you say? That's interesting. Quite true, in fact. You're right_.'

She stopped, dumbfounded. "What? I'm right?"

'_Yes, in fact…well, technically. You are dreaming, but another force controls it. You know—ghosts, insanity…this is what happens when you go 'crazy'. The line between fact, life, fiction, and death becomes blurry. Isn't that what one would expect?'_

Ellen frowned, her eyes widening. "So…_you_ made this happen? All of this shit, just so you could torture me in a dream?" She waved her hands in the air, indicating the macabre surroundings. "Why? Why the hell make a special effort right now? Look, I'm just gonna go to the HQ. Are you…_mad_ at me or something?"

The Voice paused in almost sympathy. Or antipathy. '_Ellen,' _it said softly, '_I never said that I made this._'

"Nice lie," she snorted.

'_I'm not lying_,' The Voice's tone sharpened. '_But I did contribute…I was forced to; I'm a part of your subconscious and conscious. In truth, a ghost made this, and I simply added by own little touches—the ground you're standing on, for instance. And the sky. Just simple things. But dreams are one of the few passageways between ghosts and the living, like _Nothing_, séances, and Ouija…you, my girl, have been granted the most realistic path. A dream allows almost complete connection. You can feel emotion. You can be aware that you're dreaming. You can…wait, that's all…_' it trailed off suspiciously.

"Yeah…" she cocked her head. "And…"

'_Nothing_.'

"I don't believe you."

The Voice laughed bitterly. '_Why should you? I've deceived you enough times. Very well. I pity you, then. Very much so._'

"I hate you. Now I'm curious." She really did hate it. It was such an untrustworthy and unreliable source. "But I still don't believe you."

'_I would believe me if I were you_,' it sang proudly.

"If you need to tell me somethin', then why don't you just tell me?" she growled.

'_Why, that would take all of the fun out of it! And I love a heap of fun, even when times are dire_. _Might I remind you of our fun little guessing game in the Team Rocket Headquarters?_'

She cursed under her breath, and said, "Fine. Go ahead, I believe you. Tell me."

'_Oh, I love you too. I forgot to mention that you can…feel…pain…_' it finished lamely.

"I already knew that!"

'_Really? Oh no. You wasted all of your breath just asking about something you already knew._ _Why not waste it on something you don't know? And believe me, you know very few things_.'

Ellen smirked slightly, crossing her arms. "Okay then. So which ghost made this dream? Do you know?"

'_Yes_,' it answered bluntly.

"Really?" she was surprised, expecting that she would have to worm the answer from it. "And…?"

'_And I'm not happy._' The Voice uttered a small snarl.

"So, is he going to talk to me?" The girl's smile widened into a grin, knowing that an unhappy The Voice was a good sign. Plus, she would then confirm that she had not been delusional when speaking with her father in _Nothing_.

'_No, he does not want to speak at the moment. Perhaps later.'_ The Voice had grown dour, almost…_worried_?

Thus, Ellen grew worried as well. Her grin faded rapidly, replaced with a puzzled frown. "What…? Doesn't want to talk right now? But…I thought he'd always like to talk to his daught—"

'_Oh, damnit, Ellen,'_ The Voice interrupted coldly, '_Just because I react badly doesn't mean that its Kaden…how should I say this…? Ellen, we're one. If you die, than I die.'_

_"_Wait…what?" she sputtered.

The Voice sighed. '_Giovanni sends his _utmost_ love_.'

Immediately, some invisible, brutal force tore through her chest cavity and tearing the ventricles away, ripped her heart from her body. The still beating organ, which was now floating in mid-air, ceased abruptly and was viciously ripped apart before the piece were scattered all around the area.

"Uh…ow?" Ellen asked as more of a question, staring down at the giant, bloody hole that inhabited her torso. "What the hell? Wait, why didn't I die?"

'_Oh, you can't die in a dream. The pain just takes longer to sink in, that's all,_' The Voice explained, still sounding a bit worried.

"Uh…okay." She frowned suddenly, looking around the gloomy room. "Wait, you said Giovanni was here! Where is he?"

'_Er—_'

The Voice was cut off when the high-pitched scream of a wraith penetrated the cold air. The scream was not of the wraith's usual playing, but one of extreme panic. It was high, staccato, and sharp, rebounding off the black walls. Without warning, the screaming wraith swooped down to float in front of Ellen, causing her to stumble back. The being stared at her with a look of pure helplessness as its form, hyperextending until Ellen's head measured at its shoulders. Then, the wraith began clawing at its head, tearing away strips of gray flesh and flinging them upon the ground to reveal normal skin and clumps of black hair congealing on its head.

Horrified, the girl stumbled back even more and clutched her head in her hands, closing her eyes. "_What the hell_?" she screamed. "_What the hell_?"

'_Calm down_!" The Voice roared, but to no avail. '_I honestly don't know what's happening_!' At that very moment, the pain of having one's heart ripped out (without dieing…er…) matured, and she fell to the ground, clutching the hole in her chest. '_…Ellen…'_

Now the wraith's shrill scream transgressed into a low roar and with this, Ellen opened her eyes in confusion, and the roar died. What she saw was hardly as the wraith had been, but still terrifying enough for her to swallow the bile that had quickly risen in her throat. It was, as most would have guessed, Giovanni. The man had completely replaced the wraith, and was viciously tearing off the last pieces of gray from his hand—and he appeared to be much younger than when Ellen had seen him. He was thin and muscular, his suit fitting him more closely, the lines had gone from his face, and his hair looked more natural in its usually elegant style. To others people, he would be very handsome.

'_Oh,_ _fuck_,' The Voice muttered.

"Giovanni…?" Ellen rasped, the pain slowly subsiding from her chest. "What…?"

The Boss cast her but a side-glance. "Yes, I suppose you've never seen someone possess an empty soul. Well, you only may do that when you are…_dead_."

She frowned and shakily stood up, feeling slightly comforted that The Voice was there with her. "You look different."

His smile was sickeningly amiable. "Really? Good, someone else noticed besides some dead Grunts and Anti-Trainers. Yes, that's one of the advantages of being dead—one can change their age at will. I thought my late twenties looked very good, wouldn't you say?"

"…so, why're you here? Just to rip organs out of me or something?" She neatly sidestepped his last comment, gesturing to the hole in her torso. "And where're your Grunts and Executives? Where's Donovan? Where's Viola?"

"Yes, mostly rip out your organs. Just torture you and make you pay for killing me and destroying Team Rocket. You know. I'm not going to let you win that easily—dieing does not end everything."

Mentally, Ellen felt a twinge of fear. Could she not escape Giovanni and Team Rocket, even when the man was dead and the gang had been scattered across the regions? If so, than was there any way to escape him? _Any way_? "You didn't mention the Grunts or Executives," she said plaintively, veering off onto a less caustic topic.

No such luck, though, as shown by the slow-forming scowl on the Boss's face. "Out of my comrades, I am the only one powerful enough to connect with the living. Viola is off somewhere in Fuchsia, and Donovan…avoids me."

"Avoids you?"

"_Yes_." He narrowed his eyes at her. "In fact, he avoids all of Team Rocket. Apparently, he'd much rather acquaint himself with the living."

She could not help but smile slightly. "Do you finally get that I didn't kill Donovan?"

"I still do not believe it, mainly because I haven't spoken with Donovan at all. In fact, I've only spoken with a handful: some Grunts, Viola, and Kaden. I refuse to speak with the other Anti-Trainers."

"Kaden?" She was instantly curious. "Is he here?"

"Evidently not," he said, deadpan. "Oh, believe me, he did have some very colorful words for me when I first came to _Nothing_. But I…retaliated quite well afterwards. It's amazing what death can do for one—the more power you had in life, the more power you have in death. Best of all, there's _pain_. Rich, raw pain. Perhaps Kaden is a bit _frightened_ to come here at the moment. After all, I haven't been able to find him for days. He's hiding, most likely. To bad; I'll have to go and locate him."

Horrified at what death was and how cruel Giovanni was, Ellen sprung forward to attack her enemy, just as The Voice screamed, '_Stop_!' Caught with the sudden command, she stopped, stumbled, and blindly punched. The attack did catch him on his face, but he scarcely moved—the punch did _nothing_. As Ellen stopped, the Boss calmly caught her arm and wrenched her closer to him. He then held her wrist and said very slowly, as he proceeded to snap back and break all of her fingers, "You…_snap_…can…_snap_…not..._snap_…hurt..._snap_…me…_snap_."

Without pain to impede her, the girl simply stared at her mismatched and misshapen fingers in horror. Pulling away so that the two enemies were a short but reasonable distance away, she searched her pocket for her knife—where was it, damnit? She had brought it with her on the trip—and then, of course, she realized that she was dreaming. But couldn't one _create_ things in their dream?

'_Unfortunately, no. Giovanni is controlling this, I'm sorry to say,'_ The Voice hissed, and added desperately, '_You need to wake up. Please, try anything_.'

_How am I supposed to wake up_? she asked back mentally. _What, pinch myself_? And then, aloud, clutching her broken fingers in pain, "_Damnit_!"

'_Perhaps someone in reality will wake you up_,' The Voice urged.

Giovanni frowned suddenly. "What's that voice?"

Ellen's eyes widened in shock. How could he…wait, of course. The line between ghosts and insanity was very thin; The Voice had mentioned that before.

"Is that Insanity, Fiery Sapphire? Well, we can't have it helping you. That would be unfair, wouldn't it?"

'_What? No!—'_ Just like that, The Voice disappeared, and the girl felt totally helpless.

"Why so sad?" Giovanni asked mockingly, seeing her dejected and shocked expression. "I just cured you of a mental disorder. You should be happy!"

"_Happy_?" Ellen twisted her face in a grimace. For some odd reason, she felt…almost lonely without The Voice. "_Happy_? I'd be a lot _happier_—" she spat this word, "—if you left me alone!"

"Why would I _want_ to?" he hissed. "You destroyed _everything_ I owned in life. Now…there is nothing in death. One can't own anything." He paused, lips curling into a smile and eyes brightening. "But there are some things that still exist…there is pain…there is power…and there is _sex_. Yes. Just thinking about it made me want to visit Fredia again. But…just looking at her isn't enough…just lying next to her in bed isn't enough. I need to touch her, to make her palpable, to feel myself inside of her—"

"_SHUT UP."_ Ellen had such a fierce desire to completely tear apart and kill Giovanni that she had to stop herself from leaping forward and pummeling him. He wouldn't have that arrogant smirk on his face after his rib cage had been broken, now would he? Heehee! Even without The Voice, she still felt blissfully insane. "IF YOU DON'T STOP TALKING ABOUT TORTURING MY DAD AND RAPING MY MOM, AFTER I WAKE UP I'M GOING TO GO STRAIGHT TO JHOTO AND STAB TROY AND SILVANO." With that, she realized the force of her speech and her eyes widened. What was happening to her? Was she that cruel, even to Giovanni?

Evidently, as the Boss's face had tightened with worry, his voice almost…pleading, and yet his glare was sharp and vicious. "You know, my son is in great mourning for me. For his late father..." he paused, staring at her unblinkingly. "Heartlessly murdered by an Anti-Trainer—"

"Stop it." Her voice was shivering, choked on the edge of tears. "_Stop it_. I don't want to kill them—"

"Cruelly murdered. Tell me, if I let you live, do you think Silvano would come and find you, too? Would you admit that you killed me? Would you tell the story of how it came about? And then…would he stab _you_ to death with your own weapon?" His voice darkened, and he snarled, "I didn't die of fire, Ellen. I died from gun wounds."

Ellen simply stared at him, shaking her head. "No…"

"Oh, _yes_. When I caught aflame, I died almost immediately. It wasn't because of the fire or smoke—_it was a bullet lodged in my stomach_. A bullet. Silvano is going to become an excellent leader, Fiery Sapphire. He's going to remember what happened to his father—Troy will tell him eventually. He's going to know who the murderer was. What she was like. Why she murdered—all because I destroyed a sinful intruder to the Headquarters."

"_You liar_!" she shrieked madly. "_Liar_! _He wasn't sinful! He wasn't just some intruder_!"

"You're a murderer, Fiery Sapphire," Giovanni said severely, walking forward very slowly. "You killed me because I was a murderer. Now I'm going to do the same with you."

"_No! No_!" she screamed, sobbing. "_Leave me alone, leave me alone! Go away—I want everything GONE!"_

He smiled coldly. "Death isn't that bad. You'll be with Kaden and the other Anti-Trainers. Besides, you and I, we will have an _infinite_ amount of things to do and pain to inflict. Won't that be fun?" With that, he shot his arm out and dug a bloody hole through her abdomen, clawing though viscera and organs until his forearm was half-immersed. At this point, the horrified Ellen tried to pull away, but his other arm seized her throat and constricted it lethally, impeding her from moving. Knowing that she was paralyzed, Giovanni took the moment to not yet grasp her spine, but simply disgust (and later hurt) her in digging about and disposing of other organs—namely, her lungs and stomach. Oddly, her body did not collapse as it would in reality, and thus left an empty cavity that made it simple for the Boss to grasp a part of her spine and snap it off at the base.

Giovanni grinned, expression flinching when snapping off her spine. "I told you that I'd get you. Even after my death, I succeed, Fiery Sapphire."

He withdrew both of his hands, still holding part of her spine with his forearm drenched in blood. Upon her throat being released from the grip, she stared at him with insane hate and rasped shrilly, "I'm…not…Fiery…Sapphire."

"_What_?"

"I'm…not…Fiery…Sapphire. I don't want to be…Fiery Sapphire anymore. I don't want to be in this mess…I wish I never was…I'm just Ellen. Just Ellen Adler, not Fiery Sapphire. _I'm not a murderer. I'm not a murderer_!"

Giovanni shook his head slowly, staring at her. "You deserve to die. Just like you thought I deserved to die…_Fiery Sapphire_."

As she was going to respond, a tight feeling occurred in her torso, and suddenly she was inflicted with a white-hot feeling of extreme pain, so much so that she immediately fell to the ground, screaming. The Boss laughed as he watched her thrashing about, blood spilling from the huge holes in her body.

"_You deserve to die_," he repeated in a hiss.

The air around her suddenly seemed to twist and coil, feeling particularly cold. No! This couldn't be death! _No!_ She was supposed to live! Go on with her life! Grow up and lead the Anti-Trainers! Kaden! _KADEN_!

And suddenly, Feolan woke her up.

OoO

"ELLEN. It's freaking time to _wake up_. We're here, damnit, and it smells like smoke!"

Ellen's senses slowly clicked on, and inhaling, it did indeed smell lightly of smoke. Wait. Feolan. Smoke. Cold. She was _awake_? Her eyes snapped open to see a huge black sky above her, and for a moment she thought it was the giant, dark dome—but wait, she sat up from the ground and looked about, noticing the Pokémon standing to the side and…her eyes widened.

There before her were the remains of the Team Rocket Headquarters, a massive pile of charred, wooden rafters, smashed glass, and crumbling plaster walls, all scorched with their colors ranging from dark gray to black. It looked as if the pile rose up to the sky, from Ellen's perspective, a huge, spiraling tower. A very faint plume of smoke crawled from its depths. "Hell…" she whispered, grinning.

"I know. That's what I said when I saw it," Charles said, observing the destruction with a fine-tuned calmness.

Upon coming fully back to reality, Ellen patted her pockets to reassure herself that the FS necklace and knife were in them—yes, they were. She turned to her Pokémon, feeling slightly dizzy. Perhaps she should stay seated. "Shit, I had this really horrible dream where Giovanni came and ripped my spine out! And my heart and fingers, too!"

Phil wrinkled his snout. "Ew. You have scary dreams."

"I know," she continued, "actually, it wasn't supposed to be a dream. Giovanni was supposed to be controlling it and The Voice was trying to tell me to wake up…" she trailed off, realizing that she had not heard The Voice. In fact, there seemed to be a large emptiness in her mind. "And now The Voice is gone…but I think…I think I'm better."

Feolan blinked at her. "Uh…weird. Cut the painkillers, all right? We can't have you going loopy on us _too much_."

"Yeah, yeah, right…listen, I'm just gonna…go…you know…" From her pocket, she produced the FS necklace and waved it a little bit. The Pokémon understood.

She slowly stood up, realizing how much her legs hurt. She was tempted to ask the Pokémon help her walk, but it would probably be better for her to build up strength in her legs again. Besides, it was so cold and she felt particularly clammy—she needed to walk around after the terrifying dream. With this thought, she proceeded up the slight hill, wincing occasionally. Don't concentrate on pain…don't concentrate on pain…she realized that she had no planned death rite for Kaden. What was she going to do, simply leave the FS necklace there? Ha.

It was actually quite nice standing on some uncharted island, very much alone and without any sort of threat or violence that usually occurred in her life. In fact, she would have enjoyed living in this sort of…solitude, one could say. Finally, she found herself standing at the brink of the debris, the tips of her shoes touching a shriveled piece of wood. Sighing deeply, she began, "Dad, I…" and stopped, frowning. She couldn't just leave the necklace at the edge. Perhaps farther into the Headquarters…very carefully, she stepped into the debris. Her foot only sunk slightly, and making sure she was balanced, took another step. There, closer to the epicenter of destruction. It suited the death rite better.

OoO

Meanwhile, the Pokémon watched as Ellen carefully moved through the wreckage.

"Do you think we should help her or comfort her or…something?" Feolan asked, concerned.

Charles nodded. "Good idea…although she may get a bit defensive."

Feolan began to walk away. "Isn't she always…"

Kyoshi's brow was furrowed, her eyes slightly fearful. Something was wrong with the young Anti-Trainer…and the dream sounded suspicious. "Yes, we should be with her…"

"Is everything all right?" the dragon asked Kyoshi, turning to look at her.

The Persian shrugged, padding forward. "We'll see…"

"Weird…" Phil said, as Feolan and Charles exchanged worried glances.

OoO

Ellen felt a slight chill as she took one last step forward, almost to the center of the Headquarters. Although it was impossible to be in the direct center, for the amount of debris was much too high, the girl had gotten as close as she could and was balanced on a flat piece of plaster, hoping it would not crumble under her. Feeling that it was the right place to deposit the necklace, she looked at it once more and then flung it into the pile, where it clattered through various objects and finally disappeared.

And she thought back on all the things she had done, accomplished, and failed, and all the people she had met and died, and all of the places she had been to, and all of the hardships people and Pokémon had experienced in her venture, and she smirked icily, not remembering with warmth and love but with bitterness and anger.

There. She was no longer Fiery Sapphire—and she never would be again. It brought about too many horrible thoughts and memories, too many violent outcomes and deaths. Fiery Sapphire no longer existed. Only Ellen Adler was who she was, and who she would forever be.

With that, she quickly composed a short speech in her head and said, "Dad…um…this is just some death rite…thing…" she paused to cough, clearing her throat afterwards and feeling something…odd. Curiously, she looked at the arm she had coughed on and noticed flecks of blood dotting the gray flannel. Flecks of blood? What?

She didn't feel ill…there was a slight, sick feeling in her stomach, but nothing _horrib_—

Suddenly, a shot of vicious pain tore through her torso, causing her to stumble back slightly. Shit! Her breathing became heavier, and she fumbled in her pocket for painkillers, having a fearful knowledge that they would be absolutely nothing. Alas, there were none, and the pain increased even more! Her consciousness whirled sporadically, causing her to cough and hack and spit, generating droplets of blood onto the ground and her face. She wiped it away from her mouth, disjointedly looking about. The Pokémon—she saw them coming towards her! Yes! Just as she stepped forward, another fierce coughing fit overcame her tired lungs, specking blood onto the already dead Team Rocket Headquarters. Ellen gasped, clutching her abdomen. Tears rapidly accumulated and fell from her eyes.

Damn! Damnit! What was happening? _What was happening_!? No! What's wrong, what's wrong? No! Pain! Hurt! Blood! Head! Dizzy...hurts…she was only a young girl…can't die! No! Why is this happening? Stumble! Vomit! Ground! Coughing—blood flecks! No! Survived everything else! Kaden! Can't die…her heart began beating at an astounding rate…Anti-Trainers! Mom! Fingers! Hurt…snapped! Pain…pain…Pokémon? Pokémon! Hurt. Help…the internal hemorrhaging coupled with the pain caused her to sob with fright…Charles! Pokémon! Feolan! Kyoshi! Phil! Help! Giovanni! Killed! Murdered! Flecks, blood, vomit, pain, hurt, knees buckle, hit…the…ground…and…

…_nothing_…

Absolutely nothing.

OoO

Years later, when Oliver had defeated the remains of Team Rocket and introduced the figure of Ellen to the public, most say that Ellen Adler died very differently than normal people would die—it was more Pokémon than human.

As she lay in the charred mass of the Headquarters, a simple corpse, lifeless, cold— her soul detached from her body very oddly so it seemed…that it was not meant for _Nothing_. The ghosts waited patiently for her to appear, though, Kaden miserable that there was nothing he could do, and Giovanni feeling particularly decadent that he was the cause of her death. In fact, a very large number of ghosts seemed to be anticipating her arrival.

But she never appeared.

It was as if she had disappeared from Everything itself.

There were some theories to this: the most popular and believable one was that Ellen, being infected with Pokémon Speech Disorder, went to another level of _Nothing_ where she was given a new, ethereal form and sent out into Kanto again in the form of a small Hoothoot.

No one really knows what to believe, though.

And perhaps they wanted to keep it that way, to have Ellen as a questionable Anti-Trainer for eternity—even when Silph Co. finally boarded it's doors and closed, even when Cinnabar Island was destroyed by a volcano eruption, even when Fuchsia City's Safari Zone closed down, and even when the last traces of Team Rocket and the Anti-Trainers disappeared forever, lost to the relentless jaws of time.

Most agreed on one thing, though: She may have been without her friends and family, but Ellen Adler—_not Fiery Sapphire_, was very alone and, possibly, very happy where she was.

_End_

OoO

_October 16, 2007-- Because my 'inner-demons' have provoked me enough to re-write this little section, I'm getting it over with. Lovingly. _

Poor Ellen Adler died. I suppose some people expected it...or maybe not, considering the wild humor in the first few sections..._hmm_...where did she go? You can decide for yourself.

Well, there it is. It's finished. I don't know what else to say. I mean, I suppose I could say that this was written at a sharp rate of growth both mentally and physically in my life...but that wouldn't really mean anything...

I _could_ say thank you to people...

So, thank you, reviewers. Thank you, people who randomly look at my story and don't review. I love you dearly, you know that? I really do. No lie.

Thank you, Rawhide and ParallelRose, for giving me wonderful reviews...you keep up your stories, too!

Thank you, Ri2, for injecting of logic and TRUTHINESS into your reviews, and, ultimately, this story. Now, go submit your writing to the New Yorker, or something!

Thank you, LuigiGirl and Mog Anarchy for reviewing, as well! Really! You two better finish FOG!

Thank you, Fanfiction...

Thank you, parents, for feeding, housing, and-- um, I believe that's about it. The gypsies dropped me on the doorstep, anyway.

And...especially...

Thank you, Iddamsoyt. We've had some great times over the past five years, and you survived my pointless questions about Fiery Sapphire. I'm not sure if you're going to read this, or ever read this, for that matter, but I really don't care. Just, thanks for being a wonderful friend. Oh, and you owe me money. Just kidding.

If I forgot anyone else, please don't brutally kill me. I forget things easily.

I hope that I've made you smile…or gasp…or squirm…or laugh…or anything else. Here, I bestow upon you a virtual hug!

In the similar words of Thornton Wilder, 'Good-bye, good-bye, Fiery Sapphire. Good-bye, Kanto...Ellen and Charles and Feolan and Kyoshi and Phil. Good-bye to Anti-Trainers...and Team Rocket. And knives and revolvers. And high-end department stores and British Meowths...and missing fathers and kidnapped brothers. Oh, writing, you're too time-consuming for anyone to realize you.

Oh, and remember to leave a **REVIEW…**

**And check out my new fanfiction, A Smoke Menagerie. **

_Exit, stage left!_


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